SWAT Kats XIII
by DELEON25
Summary: Razor and T-Bone are transported to a world, unknown to them, in the middle of a huge crisis. Their new adventure will take them to Cocoon, become l'Cie, and fight against an army out to kill them. Secrets will be revealed and the real reason they were chosen to become l'Cie. If they fail to fulfill their focus, then Cie'th they will become.
1. One: A SWAT Kats Purge part 1

Chapter 1: A SWAT Kats Purge: Part 1

Razor was doing his normal scanning routine while T-Bone flew the Turbokat. "There's nothing over here T-Bone. Let's go to the next point." The SWAT Kats had gotten word of some mysterious light appearing near the city. The two vigilantes had been searching for two hours and came up empty.

"Roger that." T-Bone said. He easily maneuvered the jet around. Razor concentrated on his scanners and made sure he was searching the whole area. Again, there was nothing. Razor slammed his fists on the machines and accidentally fires a missile. The missile hits the wall of the canyon and caused a rockslide. T-Bone manages to avoid the boulders and regains control of the jet. "Take it easy buddy." Razor feels bad for being a little impatient and almost causing an accident.

"You could say 'curiosity almost killed the Kats.'" T-Bone didn't respond to Razor's bad pun.

It has almost been five long hours searching the perimeter of MegaKat City. "Hey Razor, let's call it a day. The jet's running low on fuel." T-Bone said. Jake agrees and they head for the hangar. Just then a bright green light appears causing T-Bone to fly straight in it. The TurboKat began to shake and shudder while their equipment was sparking like crazy. To the Kats, it felt like they were suddenly sucked in a worm hole. In no time, they were out of the light.

T-Bone was trying to get control of the Turbokat, but it was not responding and crash landed on a long floating rode like structure. T-Bone was waking up from the crash and looks around. It was dark and a lot of weird aircrafts flew by. He saw floating structures that resembled buildings, but couldn't make out of it. It's like a floating city. He could hear gun fire from all around him. When he got out of his seat, he sees Razor is already out and examining the jet. "Where are we?" T-Bone said removing his helmet to rub his head. He places his helmet next to the Turbokat with Razor's helmet.

"I don't know T-Bone, but if I have to guess, we're probably in some kind of war." Razor was more concentrated on trying to get the Turbokat to start working. A missile hits near their jet and the ground begins to break. "Crud," Razor and T-Bone started to run. They look back and saw the Turbokat fall to the lake bellow. "How are we supposed to get home now?" Jake said while trying to avoid obstacles in their path and the collapsing road behind.

T-Bone scans the area and sees a stack of boxes leading to the road above. "Over there!" They both quickly climb to the top and land safely on the still road. "That…was a…close one." Razor said trying to catch his breath.

"Tell me about it. We lost the Turbokat and now we are somewhere we don't even know." T-Bone said bitterly over the loss of their jet. Razor stands up and looks around. The lean tom begins to think that they're in some sort of science fiction movie because none of this is familiar to him. A train passes by. "Why would there be a running train in this mess?" He stares at it for a while and sees that a missile was launched out of the train and hits a strange aircraft. The train was suddenly stopped by a robot. Razor runs towards the direction of the train, "Come on T-Bone, there could be injured citizens in there!"

T-Bone reluctantly gets up and follows Razor. When the small tom finally reaches the train, Razor was awed by the size of the robot at the front of the train. "Run!" Razor looked around to see who said that. "I meant away!" A woman with light pink hair stood before the war robot and took out her sword. Then a man in a green coat slowly followed behind the woman and seems to be helping her "Hey, hey, hey! Let's be rational now!" the man said.

Razor runs next to the pink haired woman and the green coated man. With his glovatrix ready, he prepares to fend of the robot. "I may not know what's going on, but you guys look like you need help." Razor said.

The man pulls out his pistols. "They're sending in the big guns now. What do we do?"

"Watch and learn." The lean pink haired woman attacks by slashing the robot. The robot swings its saw riddled arms towards her, but Razor intercepts with a small missile from his glove. The Manasvin Warmech starts to advance. "Fall back." she ordered. All three run back and turn around. The man makes a smart remark. Then the warmech started to rev its engine.

He raised his pistols in panic "Hey, that wasn't like a challenge, now. All right?"

The warmech starts to pic up the train. The three run back even to the next train car. The pink hair woman and Razor saw the man running for his life. "Jump!" the woman said. He jumps and lands on his kneew. As the man got up the woman warns them, "Heads up."

"This thing just won't give up!" The man fires away with his pistols which seems like he was doing a weird dance.

The woman goes for another strike, but the robot opens up and fires lasers in their direction. All three of them were hit. To Razor's amazement, it didn't kill him. "Maybe its lasers were designed to weaken us?" Razor and the man attack simultaneously by gun fire and another mini missile. The robot stops moving and falls to the bottom of the lake. Razor and the man cheer.

The woman puts her sword in the case behind her. "Oh goodness. Whew! We did it!" the man said.

"Razor!" he looked around and saw T-Bone being carried away by soldiers. He tried to follow them, but he there is no possible way. Razor motions his hand to for his ear piece but remembered that he lost his helmet with the Turbokat. He turns back to the woman and the man, "We have to go help him!"

"That's not my problem." The woman said. She leaped off the train and walks down the road.

Razor's anger rose. He was going to let her have it until the man interrupted him. "Aren't you supposed to protect civilians, soldier?" She stops and looks back at him. "I mean you are Sanctum, aren't you? What are you doing trying to stop the Purge? Why don't you tell me that?"

"I was a soldier." She answered.

A tiny bird flies out of the man's afro; he says something to the bird and puts back in his head. Razor found that to be really strange, buts shakes his head. He followed them, 'I'm coming for you buddy. Just hang on.' The small worried tom thought.

Razor caught up with the man, "I didn't get to introduce myself. The names Razor and you are?"

"Call me Sazh, and that crazy girl over there is Lightning." He looks at Razor with a strange look. "How come you look like cat?"

Razor could tell him everything, but something tells him he won't understand it all. So he decides to make his explanation short. "I don't think I'm from your world. My partner and I flew into a strange green light and ended up here." Razor said. Sazh looked at him with an even stranger look. "In short, I'm saying I'm not from here."

"So, you are from another world and ended up here? What a bad place to land. You see, it just so happens that you landed on the process of a purge." Sazh said. Razor gave a look like he is asking what a purge is.

"A purge is another word for the Sanctum to kill anyone who they fear could be a Pulse L'Cie." Lightning said with a serious tone.

"What's a Pulse L'Cie?" Razor asks. He gets looks from both Lightning and Sazh.

"A Pulse L'Cie is an enemy of Cocoon. They are chosen by Pulse Fal'Cie to destroy Eden and bring down Cocoon." Sazh said. "Isn't that right Light?" She looks away from Sazh and runs on. "Hey, where do you think you're going girl?" Sazh said. She completely ignored him.

Razor follows and turns to Sazh, "Maybe it was something you said?" She motions for the two to stop. Razor wants to know what the threat could be.

"Rebels!" A soldier said.

"So much for the element of surprise." Sazh said. Lighting gracefully taking out her blade. The group of soldiers attacks the three. Lighting runs and spins slashing all of the soldiers. Razor shoots a net on the solders and pulse of electricity shocks them. The soldiers fell unconscious to the ground. "Not bad Kat. You're better then I thought." Razor has gotten his first complement from this uptight girl.

The three kept moving down the road, fighting off any PSICOM soldier in their way. The number of soldiers on this road was slim but it seemed that they could call 'reinforcements' through some kind of portal. Lighting, Razor, and Sazh watched as one of the soldiers placed in a code. The portal conjured a wolf like creature. "Domesticated Peacekeepers." Lightning said. "Nothing to worry about."

Just like that. The three managed to kill and defeat the soldiers and their new creature weapons. They make it the end of the road. Only it wasn't the end, it was broken, leaving a giant gap between the roads. Razor guessed the distance had to be at least three fourth of a mile across "Do we turn back?" Razor asked.

"There's no time." She hissed.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Sazh asked.

"Quiet!" Lightning stood at the edge and snapped her fingers. She enveloped herself in some kind of electric energy causing her to float.

"Hey!" Sazh grabs her around the waist. "Wait! No, no, don't leave me." Razor was a little offended that Sazh didn't want to be left alone with him.

"Let me go!" Lighting was getting annoyed. She forces herself free, but the flow of energy disappears. She tries again, but nothing happened.

"Hey, that might get us across! Right there!" Razor said. He looked around to find something useful. "Maybe this should do it." Everyone got on the platform and started it. In a minute they reached the bridge, but they were not alone.

There were two PSICOM Enforcers and a PSICOM Marauder. The Marauder walks up to the three, "Deportees, are we? Weapons down, I'd hate to for this to turn ugly." Razor and Lighting did nothing, but Sazh was a little nervous about what might happen. The Marauder held up his spear, "Times up!" He rushes towards Lightning and she barely dodges in time. She took out her blade and attacks the two lackeys. Razor and Sazh are keeping the Marauder busy by taunting him. Soon the PSICOM officer is surrounded. Sazh shoots at the Marauder and successfully hits him, Razor fights melee style and landed some really good kicks and punches. The PSICOM officer gets mad and begins to glow. Lightning quickly changes her sword to a gun and fires away. She downs the Marauder.

Sazh walks to a control panel and starts the bridge to move to the other side. "So soldier, what's your angle?" Sazh asked. She remains silent. "What, is it classified military info? What does it matter? You quit, didn't you? You think I'm gonna go out there and just tell everybody your secret?"

"The Pulse fal'Cie." Lightning said. Sazh gives her a look as if was saying 'What?' "My 'angle.' I'm after the fal'Cie." She walks to the control panal and finishes the codes for Sazh. "Still happy you tagged along?"

"Didn't have a choice." Sazh said to himself. The bridge starts to move.

Razor can't stop thinking about T-Bone. He thinks if he is hurt or maybe PSICOM has killed him already. He takes those thought out of his mind and moves on, hoping he will find him.

_This is Chapter one of the series I am going to create between Final Fantasy 13 and the SWAT Kats. I do not own rights to any of the character and original story. This story will pretty much cover most of the Final Fantasy 13 game, so spoiler for those who haven't played it. I hope this version of the story goes well. Enjoy._


	2. Two: A SWAT Kats Purge part 2

Chapter 2: A SWAT Kats Purge: Part 2

T-Bone was sitting with a group of people that just stared at him. He was with the group, only he was sitting away from the group. The blond tabby made glances to some people and they quickly looked away. The others wondered what he was and where he came from. Even under the hood of the white robes he was forced to wear, he couldn't hide his annoyed expression.

He looked around to see how many people were held captive by these soldiers. It was hard to count since everyone wore the same robe and huddled together. "Hi" T-Bone turned to a girl staring at him directly in the eyes. She was lean, the white robe she wore brought out her lime green eye color, and her accent was really strange to him. "Aren't you a cute fuzzy kitty?" The girl made the tom blush, but the red-orange haired girl wouldn't leave him alone. "My name's Oerba Dia Vanille, Vanille for short. What's your name?"

The big tabby reluctantly answers, "T-Bone," he tried to hide the little annoyance in his gruff voice. She smiled by the sound of his name. "What's going on here? It looks like these soldiers are trying to get ride of everyone by killing them here." The girl only nodded to tell him he was sort of right. "Oh, well I'm not going to sit and wait here for them to kill me. I'm gonna to get out of here."

Just as he stood up, the soldiers ran to his direction. The big muscled tom was pushed down. T-Bone growled and missed trying to grab the soldier who pushed him. He stopped noticing that they were being attacked by three unknown people.

With the last soldier down, the man with blond hair called out, "You all okay?" T-Bone sees a boy trip with guns in his hands. The blond haired man tells him to be careful. "Don't worry, no one is moving to pulse today. We'll clear you a path out of here. So be ready to-"

"Wait, let me fight with you!" a man stood up.

"Yeah, you can't expect us to just sit here!" The blond haired man looked at the boy besides him and nodded.

"Okay then. Volunteers front and center.

T-Bone made for a gun when he was suddenly stopped by Vanille. She shook her head in disapproval, but tabby let himself free. When he took his gaze of her, he saw a silver haired woman make for the last gun. T-Bone releases a heavy sigh and sits back on the ground with the group. 'I hope your happy Vanille.' T-Bone thought.

* * *

><p>Razor sat in the edge of the mobile bridge as it moved through the sky. The cinnamon tom watched aircrafts pass by and firing away at the near by bridge which he could see was a fierce fight. Razor noticed Sazh standing next to him. "It's an out-and-out massacre." Sazh said. "Those people won't live long enough to die on pulse."<p>

Lighting walks to the other side of Razor leaving him in the middle. "That's the idea." Lightning said. Both Sazh and Razor made a face that seemed to say 'What?' "Sanctum logic. They conjured up the Purge to eliminate a threat. I mean-why carry the danger all the way to Pulse? Why not stamp it out here? Execution masquerading as exile. That's all the Purge ever was."

"'Relocation to Pulse.' How does the government get away with pulling crap like that?" Sazh had a hint of anger in his voice.

"You knew this was gonna happen?" Razor asked.

Lightning shook his head. "The Purge was PSICOM. Private Sanctum troops, not the Guardian Corps."

"PSICOM, Guardian Corps..." Sazh spoke out. "Soldiers are soldiers, aren't they? Pulse fal'cie, and their l'Cie, are enemies of the state. Tell a soldier to kill an enemy..." Lightning winces at the thought. "...and you really think it's gonna matter what uniform he's wearing?"

"How about you?" Lightning gives Razor a surprised stare. "Orders say shoot, you pull the trigger?" Lightning looks away. Razor can't help but feel guilty for asking. "Forget it. Forget I asked."

Just before Lightning could answer the small tom, another robot makes its entrance. The red and white robot stood on three legs, its right arm was studded with pulsating steel orbs attached to a strap, and a shield in the other arm. Razor quickly gets up and readies himself between Lightning and Sazh. "Stay focused." Lightning advises. The Myrmidon attacks Razor head on. The tom falls back after being struck. Sazh quickly lays in a couple hits with his bullets, but the robot seems to hardly care for it. The robot struck Sazh and sends him flying on his back. "We need to stay calm, it may be fast but we can still defeat it." Lightning advices to her weakened comrades.

"This is one tough robot PSICOM has sent out for us." Sazh said as the little yellow bird flew around Sazh. The automaton attacks Lightning next but she swiftly dodges. Lightning slashes the Myrmidon until the robot jumps back to avoid more damage. It makes another dart towards her and this time the android hits Lightning. She manages to jams her blade between the robots armor. The automaton raised its right arm and was charging its next attack. The pulsating steel spheroids made a loud humming sound. Lightning tried to escape but her sword got stuck. She pulled harder and her sword was slowly coming out. The Myrmidon came vertically down with a fast swing of its arm.

"Lightning, watch out!" Razor fires his last missile and managed to blow up the robots arm before it slammed her to the ground. Lightning frees her sword, transforms it into a gun once again and shoots the Myrmidon with help from Sazh. The robot started to spark and sputter until it blew up.

Lightning releases a sigh and placed her blade away. She reaches for three small vials and hands one to Sazh and the other to Razor. The small tom examined the vial, and then he sniffed it. It didn't smell good but he drank it anyways. The taste was even worse. Soon his body was feeling relaxed and his wounds were disappearing. "Wow, what was it you gave me?"

Lightning looks at the tom kat as if they just met for the first time. "It's a Potion. We use it to heal ourselves if we ever get injured." Razor sees the look on her face like it was a dumb question. He moves his attention to the still sparking carcass of the robot. Then he got an idea.

Razor ran towards the robot to see if he could use any of the parts that remain and turn it into weapons or something useful by using the tools on his glovatrix. He looked at the giant structure making its way inside. "Are we going inside that thing?"

"Yeah. Right in there." Lightning said. Razor kept rummaging through the remains of the robot.

"The Pulse fal'Cie, huh." Sazh said. The tom stared at Lightning for a while and then continued to break apart the robot. 'I hope T-Bone is okay.' Razor thought. Sazh watched with curiosity on how the cinnamon tom kat carefully explores the robot.

Lightning just stared at the Pulse Vestige. 'I'm coming for you, Sarah'

Razor finished rummaging through the robot. The tom was amazed on how many missiles he made from the remaining parts of the Myrmidon. He was about to test if the missiles worked when Lightning spoke out. "Time to jump."

Sazh followed her until he caught on to what she just said. "Hey, hang on!"

Then Razor jumped right after her. Razor could see Lightning land on the gravity field she created. Razor did his best not to miss the mark and landed on the gravity field. As he stood up, a yellow chocobo chick landed on the small tom's head.

Lightning and Sazh looked up to hear the sounds of Sazh screaming his way down. Sazh landed stomach first and was only an inch away from the ground. He stood up and the yellow chick flew back into his afro. They continued onward to the Pulse Vestige.

* * *

><p>T-Bone removed his white robes and tried to stay patient and calm. Vanille hasn't left him alone ever since they met. 'What's up with this chick?' he thought. Then the young slender girl goes off to another boy. The tabby sighs and is relieved for a little space. The boy was standing near the edge of the road watching the battle of their 'heroes' unfold. The boy had silver hair, skinny, and seemed to be around fifteen or sixteen, which he guessed is Vanille's age too.<p>

An explosion was seen on the bridge ahead of them. T-Bone saw PSICOM and rebels plummet to the bottom. He knew this was a battle for their lives, but it turning to be a really dangerous form of genocide. He turns to Vanille and saw that she is trying to calm down the boy. He was frantic and screaming 'mom.' Then T-Bone remembered the silver haired women that took the last gun. His hatred to PSICOM grew even more. It's their fault the young boy was alone. Or maybe, it was Snow's fault.

Half an hour has passed and the officers caring for the survivors are going crazy. They are asking if they found Snow yet or if there were any survivors. Then they finally got there answer by Snow appearing himself. The other guy with him lands on the road, but Snow seems like he was leave again. The tabby had a few words to tell him, but he saw his 'Hero' fly off to the giant structure.

As T-Bone watched Snow fly to the Pulse Vestige, "Come on; let's go follow him so you can tell him." The tabby hears Vanille talking to the boy. "Come on Hope, I'll go with you."

"Where do you think you kits are going?" T-Bone gets in their way Vanille gives T-Bone an odd look for being called a kit. Hope looks down to the ground, but Vanille smiles and says, "We are going to look for Snow. Hope has something to tell him. So, if you could excuse us…"

"Not happening. You're staying here with the rest of us." T-Bone begins to push Vanille and Hope back around. "I'm not going to let a couple of kids get hurt for being stupid and careless." T-Bone sees that Hope relaxes a bit. Vanille makes a face and whines.

Then Vanille gets an idea, "Then why don't you take us there? You look like you can fly the aircraft and you can protect us when we're inside." T-Bone crossed his arms over his broad muscled chest and glares at her. Vanille decided to take on a different approach. "If we get inside, you'll get your glove thing back."

T-Bone looked at her for a moment. When he was captured, PSICOM took his glovatrix and made him wear the weird white robes. The tabby had his doubts on this, but what if she was telling the truth. "How do I know you're sure about me getting my glovatrix back?"

She smiles, "Because they took by Binding Rod too."

T-Bone let out a heavy sigh, "Alright I'll take you there. But you two will do what I say and follow my orders, got it?" Vanille nods, but Hope wasn't so reluctant.

"Wait…what?" He said with a lot of worry. Vanille pushes him to move towards the aircraft. T-Bone gets on and makes sure that Hope and Vanille have taken their seat and are ready to fly.

"That way!" Vanille chanted. A rush of excitement surged through T-Bone. He may not know how to fly the aircraft, but none the less he is still a pilot. He starts the aircraft and they hover above the ground. Vanille cheers and Hope holds on to tabby really tight around his waist.

"No, no..." T-Bone turned back to face Hope. "If we go in there, that thing could- It could make us l'Cie." T-Bone was confused to what he said.

"What are you three doing?" a man with orange hair runs towards them. T-Bone turns back to see what he wanted, but Vanille pushes a button on the aircraft and they were sent soaring through the air towards the Pulse Vestige. "Get back here! Do you hear me? Hey!"

T-Bone pushes Vanille back into her seat as he tries to gain control of the aircraft. Hope was screaming and Vanille, well, was 'enjoying' the flight. The controls were strange. T-Bone didn't know what to do or which switches to flick. When he looked up, it was too late for him to stop from crashing though the wall of the vestige.


	3. Three: The Pulse Vestige

Chapter 3: The Pulse Vestige

His sight was blurry and everything around the tabby was moving. He shook his head. Once he got up, T-Bone helped Hope to his feet. Vanille just explored the inside with her sight. "Hey," T-Bone startled Vanille back into reality. "We are not in a field trip. Stay close."

She stuck her tongue out to the tabby. She let's her gaze move to the big structure next to her, "Ah-ha," she moves behind it. T-Bone walks up to her with Hope following behind. When they reached her, she was holding some kind of rod that that looked a lot like a tree branch. "I finally found my rod." Vanille said cheerfully. The blond tabby decides to check inside and just like her, he found his glovatrix.

He put it on and had on a wide smirk. He checked it to see if everything was in order and working. With his calibration complete, they decided to keep going. Just as the reached the next floor, a Pantheron leaped from the ceiling. Its unnatural growl made T-Bone cautious. He readies himself to attack the four legged creature, when sharp whips slashed it across the face. He watched the whips retract to Vanille's rod.

T-Bone was surprised to see that she can fight. Then he heard Hope grunt and saw that he threw a boomerang. It hit the Pantheron and the boomerang returns to Hopes hand. The big tabby was dumbfounded by how skilled they really are. He relaxes a bit no know he doesn't have to protect them all the time.

T-Bone returns his focus on the manufactured panther snarling at them. The big tabby runs towards it and lands a really powerful uppercut, sending the Pantheron to the air. Vanille swung her rod and sent her whips to grab the panther. Once she got a good grip of it, she quickly pulls back on the rod and sends the Pantheron crashing to the ground. T-Bone couldn't help but cheer on such a great combo.

Hope warns the tabby that the panther is getting up. It lunged towards T-Bone, knocking him down. His glove was the only thing that protected his from its vicious bite. T-Bone uses his free arm and punches the living daylight out of it. The creature crashes on the ground again and stays there.

Everyone relaxes when the danger has passed. Vanille cheers and dances around T-Bone and Hope. "I'm tougher then you thought, huh?" T-Bone had to admit that this girl was more skilled than he thought.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" the tabby asked. Vanille looks down to the ground as if the answer was down there.

When she finally looks up, "I…well…" she looked behind T-Bone, "Over there, we could go through there to look for Snow." She ran past Hope and the big tom to reach the set of steps to the big hallway.

Hope looks at T-Bone and shrugs his shoulders and follows behind Vanille. T-Bone just realized that she avoided his question. Now he knows that there is something more to that girl. "Come on, kitty!" Vanille called out. With that said, T-Bone gives her a glare and follows behind.

* * *

><p>A platform makes its way to a chamber of stairs. Snow walks out. He runs his way down the set of stairs to the other platform. He presses a switch and the room begins to send a light down the corridor. 'Hold on baby, your hero is on the way.' The platform begins to slowly go up decend down.<p>

* * *

><p>Lightning slashes a doorway and is repelled back. She stares at the door with frustration. "Great, you have any more bright ideas?" Sazh said sarcastically.<p>

Razor pumped his elbow to Sazh's ribs. He makes a look like he didn't mean it to come out like that. Lightning gives Razor an approving look.

She stares at the locked doorway. She places a hand on it, 'I'm sorry.' Then the door begins to glow. The barrier blocking their path subsides and the door opens. Lightning was surprised to see that it just opens.

"How did you do that?" Sazh was surprised. He just gawked at the suddenly open pathway.

"Let's keep moving." Lightning placed her blade back in its case. The three pressed on through the hallways laced with Pantherons and Myrmidons. Their battles were fairly easy with the Pantherons, but the fights with the automatons were a challenge.

* * *

><p>Vanille enters the new chamber. She waves her hands to make Hope and T-Bone hurry up. "Calm down Vanille, we just finished fighting of a pack of Pantherons and Hope needs to take it easy." T-Bone scolds. Vanille walks with the other males until they finally reach the center of the chamber.<p>

T-Bone helped Hope sit up on the floor. "How is your leg coming along kid?" Hope puts pressure on the leg and a sharp pain makes him wince. "It's not good huh? Well, I guess we can rest here for a moment."

When they thought it was safe for them rest, the barrier on the sides disappeared and saw zombie like monsters sluggishly walking towards their direction. "Cie'th!" Vanille cried out.

T-Bone turns his attention to Vanille, "What did you say?" he heard a moan coming from behind him and the tabby regains his focus on the monsters at hand.

They were surrounded and with Hope unable to fight, they were in serious trouble. "Looks like you guys need some help." All three turn their focus on Snow. He readies himself to help fight off the treat. T-Bone and Vanille nod to each other and worked to protect Hope the best they can.

Snow ensured that not a single monster got close. Each punch Snow delivered made the monsters disappear into dust. If a monster did manage to get passed Snow, Vanille would whip them and T-Bone would punch and launch a mini-missile from his glovatrix for those huge crowds.

Then, the monsters stopped moving and walked away. T-Bone relaxed and gave out a heavy sigh. Vanille smiles at the tabby for a successful turn about. "Alright we did it!" Snow chanted, "Now, why don't you head on back where you came from. It's far too dangerous for you guys to be hanging around her."

"We can't," Vanille walked up to Hope and helps him up. His leg is feeling a lot better so he waves to let him stand. "I have to tell you something."

Snow smiles and pats his shoulder. "Tell me later, right now I have something important to do." He runs off to the platform. Hope followed right behind him. T-Bone and Vanille ran after Hope and all four were on the platform heading up.

* * *

><p>They reached a hallway where they can rest for a moment. "Tell me, why are you here Lightning?" Sazh asked. She flinched at the question. As much as Razor wants to know too, he didn't constantly asked until he got annoyed of it.<p>

"I'm here to rescue my sister." Both Sazh and the tom kat breathed out a shocking gasp. "She was captured because she was a L'Cie."

Sazh couldn't believe that he was helping her save a Pulse L'Cie. He couldn't resist asking another question.

"Do you know what her Focus is? You do know what her Focus is, right?" Lightning turned her gaze away from Sazh.

"Why is it important for Lightning to know her Focus? What are you even talking about Sazh?" Razor was confused. The cinnamon tom waited for his answer.

"Well, every L'Cie is given a Focus. A Focus is a task or job that they are suppose to do before their brand fills up and turn into a Cie'th." Sazh explained.

"What's a Cie'th?" Razor couldn't help asking the question.

Sazh looked at Lightning. He could tell she doesn't want to here it. "A Cie'th is a person who becomes a monster when they don't complete their focus." Lightning gives him a glare to stop. "A monster doomed to roam the earth for eternity." Lightning storms off. Razor felt scared that their in a world where they are plagued by such an evil and dreadful curse.

Lightning then suddenly runs off. Razor and Sazh follow her up the stacks of steps and when they reach the top, they found Sarah.

The platform reaches the top and Snow runs to Sarah lying on the ground. He carries her in his arms. "Sarah," he cried out.

"Is that...my hero?" Serah said weakly. Vanille is shocked when she sees her.

"Let's get you out of here." Snow said.

"Hands off. I'm taking her home." Lightning hissed.

"Sis, I-" Snow began.

"I'm not your sister!" Lighting interupts. "You couldn't protect her. It's your fault she-"

"You can save us." Serah interrupts. Lightning and Snow listen closely. "You can save us. Protect us all. Save...Cocoon."

"Save Cocoon? Serah? That was your focus?" Lightning questioned.

"Anything, I'll do anything. Leave it to me-you'll see. I'll protect Cocoon! I'll save everyone!" Snow said.

Lightning glares at Snow. Then looks back at Serah, "Somehow, I'll make things right."

"Thank you." Sarah said. A blue light was eminating from her brand and began to float.

"Serah!" She and Snow reach out for her. Serah begins to crystallize. A crystal tear lands in Snow's hand and he hold on to it with dear life.

"Why is she turning into a crystal? Razor asks.

"L'Cie who fulfull their focus are transformed and granted eternal life. Just like the stories say" Hope answered the small tom's question.

"Serah...sweet dreams." Snow said holding on to the crystal tear tightly.

"Sweet dreams?" Lightning raised her tone. "She's not sleeping. Serah...she is-"

"She's alive!" Snow spits back. Lighting gives Snow an even colder glare. "The legend! Remember the legond! L'Cie who fulfill their focus turn to crystal and are given eternal life. It's the same with Serah! Eternal life! She's not dead!" Lightning was getting annoyed. "Serah is my bride-to-be. I promised to be hers forever! I don't care how many years I have to wait-"

Lighting has about had it and slugs Snow in the jaw. "It's over! Open you eyes and face reality!"

The Vestige begins to shake violently. Hope falls to his knees. "What's going on?" T-Bone asked after the Vestige stopped shaking.

"Must be the Sanctum trying to destroy this thing." Razor said.

"Aren't they taking this back to Pulse? That's what the Purge was, right?" Vanille asked.

"All they care about is getting everything from Pulse off Cocoon. Dead or alive, it's all the same." Sazh said. Vanille was surprised by his answer that it looked like she was about to go off the edge. Hope takes her arm and pulls her towards the last chamber.

Lightning gets up and makes her way to the next and last room in the vestige. As everyone followed her, Razor and T-Bone spot each other and gave a faint smile.

The last room was dark but it had enough light for them to see. Lightning pulls out her sword and strikes the round core. "It's your entire fault!" Lightning yells.

Sazh grabs her to calm her down. "What are you trying to do? Provoke it?"

"This thing took Sarah away from me. That is why it has to die!" The core began to release steam. It opened and out showed a bright purple crystal being with two gears that looked like pillars, spinning and swinging at the group.

"What is that?" T-Bone was shocked to see that the thing was alive. Razor just watched in amazement.

"It's Anima, the Pulse Vestige guardian. It's angry because we entered these forbidden grounds and corridors." Vanille answers the tabby. They watched Snow, Lightning, and Sazh fight Anima.

The two gear pillars were being real trouble for the three. Each blow sent them flying and crashing on the floor. Lightning got up; she didn't care if this monster killed her. She just wanted to put that thing out of its misery. Anima raised an arm and was hovering over Snow. Lightning was too weak to even try to protect him. She releases a couple of heavy breaths before she watched Snow meet his end.

Lighting heard and explosion. She looks up and saw that Anima's pillar was destroyed. Then the second explosion destroyed the second arm. "Now, it's your chance!" The two toms yelled out. Anima is defenseless. Lightning pulls out and an Elixir and heals herself, Sazh, and Snow in the process. Their wounds are fully healed and quickly unleash a relentless assault on the Fal'Cie. Anima central light was slowly fading away. Then it suddenly bursts a bright light.

Everyone was floating in empty space. Razor and T-Bone looked around and found that they weren't alone. They saw Lightning, Snow, Sazh, and Hope. Then a giant being appears before them. It sends a blast of energy towards the six helpless prisoners. The pain from the blast made the two kats squirm and scream.

Razor saw images of a city and a giant monster. Then it vanished. Everything turned dark.

Outside the Pulse Vestige, it was loosing altitude. It started to plumit to the lake. The giant structure then releases a powerful bright blue light. It turns the entire lake into a crystal like maze.


	4. Four: Two Kats Became l'Cie

Chapter 4: Two Kats Became L'Cie

Razor and T-Bone abruptly woke up. They looked around and found themselves lying in what seemed to be frozen water. The walls were shaped like waves about to crash down on it. Closer inspection shows that it's actually crystallized water. Razor got up. He searched around to see if he could find the others. He found no single trace of Lightning or Sazh.

"I wonder what happened to them." Razor said to the dizzy tabby. He took for ever getting up. It seems he crash landed harder than Razor.

"Well, maybe we will find them later. Right now we have to get moving if we want to find a way out of here." T-Bone said. He and the cinnamon tom walked down a slant path.

Just then they heard a moan coming from the end of the path. "It's another zombie." T-Bone readied himself. He went for a punch and his fists were cloaked in flames. When he made contact, T-Bone turned the zombie ablaze and dispersed. Razor was awed by the tabby's power.

T-Bone just stared at his fist, 'How did I…' fear was running through his entire body. Razor patted his friend on the back for a job well done, but T-Bone backed away from him. Then he felt a sting on the back of his right hand. He removed his glovatrix, turned his right hand around and saw a black brand. 'What's going on? What's this thing on my hand' T-Bone thought.

Razor saw what he was staring at. The tom-kat removed his glovatrix and stared at his right hand but found nothing. Razor thought he didn't have on. Then he remembered the thing that he saw. It blasted some kind of power on his left shoulder. He removed half of his G-Suit and looked at his shoulder. To his surprise, he found the same brand on it.

"Okay, this is getting to weird." T-Bone said with a shaky voice. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know, but I do know is this: we seem to have acquired magic abilities." Razor explained, "Maybe it was from that thing we saw when we were floating in empty space."

"Wait, you saw it too? The big red thing that blasted us and showed us images of a city and a monster attacking it." Razor nodded. T-Bone growled and punched the crystal wall. "Great, now we are trapped in this world with powers we don't even understand how to use. Can things get any worse?"

Razor knew right now isn't the time to try to calm him down. He zipped up his G-Suit back on and began to walk down the path. T-Bone followed. The small tom looked back at his friend. 'This is going to be a long day.' Razor thought.

* * *

><p>Lightning and the gang finished fighting off a couple Cei'th. They all stood quiet for some time. "So, is everyone a L'Cie?" Lightning said to break the silence.<p>

"Sure am." Sazh said pointing to his chest.

"I am too." Hope said looking at his wrist. "What about you Vanille?"

"Yup," she revealed the brand on her thigh to everyone. "I wonder what happened to T-Bone and that other cat."

"I'm sure they are somewhere close by. Maybe if we go down that path, we should be able to see them or meet up with them." Sazh said.

Lightning walks down the path, "Hey where are you going?" Snow asked.

"The longer we stay here, the faster PSICOM will find us." She glares at Snow. She starts to walk down the path again. Everyone follows her.

"Then I guess I'll go look up ahead." Snow said as he passed Lightning. Vanille followed right behind him.

Lightning places a hand on her chest. She feels angry. She also feels something else but can't seem to know what it is. Right now, all she can do is move forward and accept the fact that she is a L'Cie, an enemy of Cocoon.

* * *

><p>The two kats were trying to fend themselves from more zombies. The groups of Ghouls were being a real trouble. Razor cursed when he ran out of munitions for his glovatrix and began to fight melee style.<p>

The small tom pounced on a ghoul and easily picked it up and threw it to the horde of ghouls. Razor was amazed how strong he has gotten. He guessed it was another use of the brand.

T-Bone used his last missile. The ghouls were gone, but a new monster came at them from the sky. "There is no end to these things!" The big tabby threw his glovatrix away and glared at the new menace.

T-Bone launches a couple of punches but the flying monsters swiftly dodge. Razor tries his attempt to hit one but was also gracefully avoided. The monsters swoop down and pound the two vulnerable kats with their wings.

T-Bone growls in frustration. "How are we supposed to kill these things? They move so fast and dodge all out attacks." The tabby stares at his right hand and quickly puts the thought aside.

Razor relaxed and stood there. He then swings his left arm as if he was throwing something towards the flying nuisance and a clear orb is flung towards it. The creature screeched in pain when it made contact. He swings his arm back and another orb is flung towards the monster. He heard a voice in his head saying Ruin. 'Could that be the name of the spell?' he thought.

The big tom was hesitating on whether or not to use his magic. Physically fighting these things would be meaningless and Razor proved that magic is the only option left. He clenched his fists and swings his right arm just like Razor. An orb of crimson flame was flung towards the Wight.

The two Wight counter attacked, but the two tom-kats dodged. They worked together dualcasting magic at their enemy. Soon, the Wights were vanquished.

"Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about." Razor cheered for their victory. He came up to his buddy and saw that the tabby had a placid look on his face. "Come on T-Bone, It's not all that bad. Look at the bright side." The tabby gives him an angry look.

"What bright side?" he asked.

Razor smiled widely, "At least we can fight in equal terms with the Pastmaster if we ever find a way back home."

T-Bone smiled. Then he began to chuckle. Soon he started to laugh his heart out. Razor didn't know if he was being serious or if his best friend finally went nuts. T-Bone recovered from his laughing moment. "I need that. Thanks buddy for making me laugh."

"You're welcome, I guess?" They continued to follow the path. It led up and the two kats had to climb up the slant wave. Once at the top, they could view the entire lake. Razor showed T-Bone the location of the Pulse Vestige. "Maybe the others are close by."

T-Bone nodded and they both slid down the wave. At the bottom the SWAT Kats faced another horde of Ghouls and Wights. With their new abilities, the two vigilantes finished the monsters off with ease. Razor doesn't want to admit just yet that their magic is more helpful then his glovatrix.

Soon they made it to the edge of the path. It was a steep jump down but it wasn't a far distance. Once they landed safely on the ground, they walked up the small hill. They stood there trying to decide which of the two paths they should take. Razor remembered seeing a temple just to the up ahead. He looked back and was shocked of what he found. "It's Lightning's sister, Sarah."

The two toms got closer. "Yup, that has to be the girl Snow was so frantic searching for." Razor looked at the big tom with confused stare. "That was the guy in the white coat." The smaller tom remembered who he was talking about.

Razor pulled out his glovatrix and tried to see if he could try cutting Serah out from the rest of the crystal. His lasers seem to have no effect on the crystal. He raised the power a little bit. The lasers still don't seem to be cutting through. The glovatrix starts to spark and breaks. Razor gave out a depressed sigh.

"T-Bone," the kat turned around and saw Vanille running towards him. She jumps and gives him a big hug. "What happened? Are you okay?"

The big tabby blushes when everyone is staring, "I'm alright, just take it easy." He puts her down.

Lightning walks towards Razor. She gasped at the sight of her sister. Snow came up and pushed Razor out of the way. He grabbed a spike like tool and started to dig around Serah's crystal casing.

When Razor got up, he saw that robot from earlier before. "Watch out!" The banged up machine tried to make a kill. It was the same robot that attacked Lightning and Sazh on the train. "Do you think it's still after us?" The war machine used its tail to break off chucks of crystal and was launched at the L'Cie.

With luck, the bolders of crystal missed and every got ready for a rematch with the Warmech. The right arm is still damaged from Razor's missile so it fully depended on the left arm to attack. Lighting slashes the Warmech combined with her Thunder spell. Razor focused mainly on using his magic since he couldn't get close enough to the machine without getting zapped by the lasers shooting out of its tail. Snow acted as shield for the party. He provoked the robot to target him.

The Warmech tries to hit the party with another barrage of crystals. That was beginning to be a problem since this time some were hit, but not too badly. Vanille and Hope used their magic to heal their injured comrades. Sazh stopped casting fire spells and used his enhancing magic to boost the power of Lightning, Razor, and T-Bone.

The robot was taking so much damage. Somehow it was still able to withstand all their attacks. T-Bone replaced Razor when his buddy got tired. The tabby chained spells of fire and wind that made the robot started to spark a bit. The Warmech opened up its front and revealed a canon. It charged its attack and fired all of its targets. They all took little damage since Snow absorbed most of the damage.

Lightning switched to healing with Hope and Vanille to quickly get back to the fight. The robot seemed to have stopped. Now was every ones chance to attack. Snow and Lightning combined their magic with their physical attacks, while everyone else cast spells towards the Warmech.

There was a small explosion inside the machine. Everything started to spark. The Warmech hovered away and exploded. Everyone relaxed. Snow went back to digging out Sarah.

"What are you doing?" Lightning asked.

"I'm digging her out. One day she will come back. I know she will." Lightning pulls him away from his work.

"What makes you think she will come back? Sarah is gone." Lightning glares at him. Her fists clenched up.

"Sarah became a crystal. That means she completed her Focus and was granted eternal life. I have this feeling that she will comeback." Lightning punches him across his face. Everyone gasps to the sudden attack.

"Come on we need to…" She lands another punch at his face again. He gets up, "Don't you want Serah back?" Lightning stops from trying to hit him again. His words stung her a lot.

"Well if we are going to move Serah, we are going to need the proper tools." Sazh said.

Snow stood there for a moment. "Besides, we are on the run from PSICOM, if we stay here trying to free your girlfriend then we are sure to be captured."

"Then go," everyone stared at Snow, "I'll stay here and free Serah."

Lightning turns her back on him and walks the other direction. Everyone follows Lightning, but Hope stays behind staring at Snow. "Snow…"

"Go on, I'll be alright. You need to stay with Lightning." He tells Hope. Hope follows behind the others and leaves Snow alone.


	5. Five: PSICOM is Here, Time to Escape

Chapter 5: PSICOM is Here, Time to Escape

Lightning leads the group onward. Sazh is conversing with Razor on what his world was like, the different kind of people, even the Omegas. Sazh found one particular bad gy interesting. "Dark Kat, he sounds like a really desperate guy to take over the city. Then again, we are now bad guys ourselves." Sazh said. Razor stopped in his tracks.

'What did he mean by that?' Razor thought. Not once has he thought that his power was evil magic. Vanille grabs his arm and pulls on him to keep going.

"We're never going to get out of here if you think too much." She said. Razor knows he gets lost thoughts. In order to learn about this whole L'Cie thing, he asked Vanille a question.

"Do you know why Sazh said we are the bad guys?" She slows down, turns to face Razor, and shakes her head. He sighs.

T-Bone is staring at his L'Cie brand. He looks to his left and notices that Hope is studying his brand also. Then he remembers that he lost his mom and is now orphaned. He walks up to him, "Hey kid, you okay?"

Hope looks up to the tabby, "Yeah, I'm just a little shaken, that's all." Hope gives T-Bone a faint smile. The big kat knows that something is eating at him, but what?

"Well, if there is something on your mind, just spill it." He sees that Hope looks away and walks a little faster. 'Maybe I should leave him alone for now.' T-Bone thought.

T-Bone catches up to Vanille and Razor, "So what happens now? We are in the middle of a crystallized lake and no sign of escape. What if those weird zombies attack us again?"

"Zombies," Vanille gave him a funny look, "you mean the Cie'th? I don't think they are near here. They're probably still around the Pulse Vestige."

Razor was stunned by surprise to hear that those things were Cie'th. He remembered what Sazh said, that a Cie'th is a person turned into a monster because they failed to complete their Focus. Guilt ran through his mind. He now feels like a bad guy, a monster even.

Razor feels his friend's big hand lands on the top his back, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a little shaken, that's all." Razor said. T-Bone was starting to think that being in this world is affecting his partner's mind really bad. The big kat just wishes he knew of a way out of here.

The group ends up a huge crater like hole in the lake. "Stay down." Lightning commands. She scans the inside of the crater with her sight and sees a PSICOM airship. Then she heard humming sounds coming from behind. They all see three ships land next to the airship.

"Do you think they saw us?" Sazh asked.

"There is only one way to find out." She then starts to lead the group again down the path. It didn't take them that long to be found by PSICOM Trackers and Watchdrones. The four new Pulse L'Cie and two new Pulse L'Cie Kats prepared for battle. Lighting, Sazh, and Vanille focused on the trackers, while Razor, T-Bone, and Hope on the drones.

Lighting easily took down each tracker that lunged for her. She sees a tracker making an attack towards her partner, "Vanille," Lightning yells. She fires a thunder spell to the PSICOM soldier who was about to attack Vanille.

"Thanks,"

Hope is having a hard time trying to make a mark on the drones. The robots are moving at such a fast speed that he can't even concentrate. One of them hits him on the back and Hope falls to his knees. Another one makes a dive for Hope, but T-Bone tackles the drone. With all his strength, he ran with the drone griped on his arms and smashed it to the wall.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" T-Bone cheered. Then he was surrounded by three more drones. "Crud," the drones hover slowly towards him. The drones raised their tentacle arms and their hips began to gyrate at a fast pace. The humming sounds were making him angry, but the drones suddenly stopped moving.

The robots hit the ground sparking. The tabby looks up and saw Hope with a wide smirk, "That's for helping me." T-Bone gave him thumbs up.

"I'd hate to ruin such a great moment but can someone please deal with the big behemoth coming this way!" Razor said as he quickly dismantled a drone with one of the robots severed gyrating hips.

The big four legged unnatural feral creature roars its way towards the group of L'Cie. T-Bone and Hope readied themselves for an impact. T-Bone decides to provoke it and gets its attention on him. With a successful distraction, the behemoth lunges at the burly tom and knocks him down.

"Man, that thing is really powerful!" He got up but quickly fell back down when his ribs hurt. Soft gentle lights land around his body and his ribs don't hurt that bad anymore. It stings but not broken. He looks up and saw that Hope had saved him again. 'I guess I'm getting carried away again.' He thought.

The behemoth turns its attention towards Hope. He slowly backed away. The growls of the monster made Hope's hair stand on ends. He saw Razor jump on top of the behemoth and it starts to buck in place. "Let's see if you can handle this little thing I just created?" The small tom jumps off and lands in front of Hope, "I would cover my ears if I were you." He suggested as the bomb he implanted on the monster exploded. Hope's ears rang. "I guess I was too late warning you."

"There are more heading this way!" Sazh started to panic. "I think it's best if we run from here now while we have the chance." Lightning nodded and ordered everyone to move out.

PSICOM soldiers were hot on their trail. They reached the temple Razor saw and there were soldiers and feral weapons in the halls. The group hid behind fallen pillars to spy on the soldier's movement. "Over there." Vanille pointed to a door way covered by rubble except for the top part of the doorway.

Lightning was more amazed on her keen eye sight. Soon they reached the almost blocked pathway and started to climb up. Everyone made it through but T-Bone had a little trouble crawling out of the small passage. Razor tried really hard not to laugh when his friend came rolling down to the other side.

The group came to a big hall. Vanille liked every bit of exploration she was getting. "Don't go too far." Sazh said. Vanille nodded. As everyone else talked about where to go next, Vanille just kept skimming the bright crystal walls. Everything was so beautiful to her.

Then a giant winged creature lunges at her. She screams and falls to the ground unscathed. Everyone turns to her direction and sees the flying monster making for another attack. "It's another PSICOM weapon!" Lightning yelled. She pulled out her blade and jumps making successful slashes in the air.

Razor, T-Bone, Hope, and Vanille used their magic to attack from a distance, while Lighting attacks up close. Sazh shoots to attack so he could help Lightning in between slashes.

The Garuda Interceptor spins knocking Lightning straight to the ground. Then it swoops towards the group of ravagers, tossing them up into the air and slowly fell to the ground hard. T-Bone quickly recovers and switches to commando. He jumps and lands a couple of powerful slashes with his claws.

It got angry and flies around in a frantic dance. The Garuda crashes the crystal wall and reveals more of the chamber. Lightning and the others follow it and spot an airship. "There, that's our exit route." Sazh said.

"Let's deal with this flying freak first." T-Bone said. He and Lightning make for an attack, but the Garuda flew higher and began to charge. Then it fires a blast of electricity to the group sending them to their knees. Vanille and Hope quickly heal the party. Sazh switches to ravager and joins with Razor to cast magic.

Lightning quickly gets up and slashes the Garuda. T-Bone still has the pain on his chest but he is will to get up and join Lightning. Before T-Bone could even jump at the monster, it swoops again. The big kat jumps on top of the Garuda and holds on with his claws. The monster screeches in anger.

T-Bone holds on as the Garuda flies around trying to knock him down. Then he got an idea. T-Bone lets go and tried to grab on to its wing. With lady luck on his side, he succeeded. He slashes the wings and sends it crashing to ground. Lightning and Razor go for the assault.

The Garuda screams in pain and tries to fly away, but Vanille used her rod's whips to hold it down. Lightning makes one final stab through the monsters head and it quickly stops moving.

The Garuda Interceptor started to disappear but numbers and small cubes were the only thing that seemed to show as it fades away. "What was all those numbers for?" Razor asked.

"It's PSICOM's special weapons. They use codes to bring manufactured monsters into the battle field to aide them on their fight." Lightning said. Razor was very intrigued. That could be useful to them if he ever thought of how it is even programmed.

As the group closely walked to the airship, T-Bone's excitement started to climb. He volunteered to fly the thing but was immediately denied. Sazh was told to fly the airship because he knew how to use the controls and has used one before. T-Bone sighed but Razor came up to him and said he should watch and learn how incase he gets the chance to fly it.

* * *

><p>Snow was digging franticly to get his fiancée out of the crystal surrounding her. All of a sudden he was surrounded by PSICOM soldiers. "Freeze and don't move." One of the soldiers said. Snow raised his arms to the air and lunged at on of the soldiers. The soldiers fired away with their guns to contain the raged L'Cie.<p>

Snow did really well on his own until he was outnumbered. There were just too many soldiers for him to handle. The PSICOM soldiers crept slowly towards snow. Snows arm started to burn and his fists started to release a blue aura. The aura gathers and revealed two blue women.

The soldiers were backing away quickly but the two women attack the soldiers. A retreat was called and they escaped. The two women turn their focus on Snow. The woman on the right healed Snow and the woman on the readies herself for a battle with Snow.

She casts a spell that ticks in Snows mind. Snow doesn't know what to do. He tried to attack the woman attacking him but her attack knocks him down on his back. She was powerful and dangerous. The other woman healed Snow again and is getting confused. 'Do they want me dead or alive?' Snow thought. He sees that the two women shake their head.

The woman on the right attacks Snow again and Snow decided to block the attacks. The woman smiled and saw that his endurance was indeed powerful. Snow knew attacking her was futile so he sticks with blocking. The woman on the right relentlessly attacks as the other woman healed Snow. Soon the two women stop and accept Snow as their master. They disappear but their spirits are in the crystal that lands in Snows palm.

The PSICOM soldiers return and pin Snow to the ground. A woman in blue robes walks up to him, "I thought those eidolons were going to kill you. But it seems that you showed them who is boss." Her accent was strange but he was angry at her for helping these soldiers.

"You're a L'Cie too, why are you doing this?" Snow yelled. She ignores him and tells the guards to put him in the ship. Snow was resisting and she knocks Snow out cold.

* * *

><p>Sazh and the gang fly away from the PSICOM fleet on their tale. They were flying straight up. Huge PSICOM ships were ready to fire at the L'Cie ship but they missed and the gang escaped but still in heavy pursuit.<p>

"There is no stopping them!" Sazh said.

"Go over there." Lighting points towards the canyon. As Sazh flew through, T-Bone studied the controls, but couldn't get a good look at them when the ship kept shacking around. Sazh focused on not trying to crash or even scrap on the canyon walls as they got closer towards the end. He made it out and only a couple of PSICOM fleets were still after them.

Sazh flies straight towards the Fal'Cie Phoenix. He dodges the rays of light that if spreads but the fleets behind them had trouble. Sazh relaxed a bit knowing that there were no more fleets.

Screens appeared before them in front of their seats. "The Purge was a complete disaster as rebels tried to escape and PSICOM soldiers were given the order to kill them all there and not at Grand Pulse. The order was sent by the Sanctums high power, Primearch Deysley, 'My children of Cocoon, this Purge was a complete necessity and L'Cie behind will be captured and executed.'

"Who is that?" Vanille asked. Razor and T-Bone want to know who he was as well.

"That's the Primarch of the Sanctum." Sazh said.

"He was the one responsible for the Purge in the first place." Lightning had a tone of anger in her voice.

T-Bone looked forward, "Look out!" His warning was too late when the ship hit one of the Fal'Cie's rays and the ship plummets to the ground.


	6. Six: What the Destiney of a L'Cie is

Chapter 6: What the Destiny of a L'Cie Really Is

Sazh wakes up from the crash and looks around. He sees Lightning is already up with the blond tabby. Then he finds Hope, Razor, and Vanille still unconscious on the ground. Hope woke up just as Sazh was about to walk towards Lighting and the big kat. "Hey, kid, take it easy alright." Sazh received a small nod from the silver haired boy.

"It seems like a junk yard out here." T-Bone said. He searched around a huge pile of junk to see if anything was useful, but everything was rusted up. "Not even Razor could find anything useful in this scrapheap."

"You seem to be very close to that smaller kat." Lightning said. She leaned against the side of a rugged wall of a cliff. T-Bone nodded. "I'm not going to ask anything personal, but what are your real names?"

T-Bone was surprised by the sudden question. He was having a hard time debating with himself if it was alright to tell her. "Tell her." T-Bone turned around to see the smaller tom behind him. "It's not gonna hurt us if it's just them right." Razor said as he pulled off his bandana. "My real name is Jake, Jake Clawson."

T-Bone wasn't as reluctant to take off his bandana but managed to. "And my name is Chance Furlong."

Lightning walked towards them. "Those names sound much better then those ridiculous 'Hero' names for your little vigilant hobby."

The two kats flinched a little when she criticized about their 'hobby' from their world. Chance thought she was being rude. Jake glared at him as if he was saying 'don't do it.'

Lightning walked off to the bridge ahead. Sazh stayed behind to stay with Vanille until she woke up. Jake volunteered to stay with Sazh. Chance didn't want to be left alone with Miss Too uptight. Jake just kept glaring at him and Chance followed Lightning and Hope tagged along with them.

It's been five minutes and Chance is just about sick of her attitude. There short walk was interrupted by a small group of Watchdrones. Without hesitation, they quickly pulled out their weapons and fought the drones. With Chance in the party, the fight was fairly easy to say the least. Lightning put up her sword and make the group continue onward.

The party of three made it to a dead end. This seemed like a good time to ask his question. "Alright, something is eatin' you up. What seems to be the problem?"

Lightning just ignored him and climbs the wall.

"Don't just leave us." Hope said. He sat down on a large rock in the middle area.

"Man I tell ya, if I had a dollar for every she-kat I dated that acted like her, I'd be a happy tom." Chance said.

* * *

><p>Vanille woke up. She rubbed her eyes and found Sazh sitting on a rock talking to Razor. She looked around for everyone else but were nowhere in sight. "I guess the sleepy head decided to wake up." Razor said.<p>

Vanille noticed he wasn't wearing his bandana. She quickly got up and got a good look of the small tom's eyes. "Hmm, what happened? You don't have your bandana on?" Razor told her that his real name is Jake and she pouted that she liked his other name better. "So does T-Bone have a different name too?"

"Yeah, his name is Chance." Vanille smiled at the small tom's friend's name. Somehow Jake thinks that she likes Chance's name better than his.

"I'm sure that this small recap of introductions is very amusing, but can we get going?" Sazh said. Jake and Vanille agreed and followed Sazh to the bridge the others took. When they got close, the bridge breaks by piles of rubble. "It looks like we'll have to take the other path."

The three went off to the opposite path. It didn't take them long to find trouble. By finding it, they really did find it. They saw Watchdrones fighting with some kind of rusted up robots. "What do we do now?" Sazh rubbed the back of his neck and thought for a moment.

Jake had an idea. "How about we jump in there and fight that rust bucket first. It will probably be too busy fighting off the drones so it will do the damage on them for us. After we defeat the robot, the drones will be easy to finish off."

Sazh was amazed on how thorough he thought that through. "Sounds like a better plan then just jumping in." The group jumped into the fray hoping that Jakes plan will work. Some Watchdrones attacked Sazh and Jake but the rest did focus on the Pulsework Solier. Vanille focused on healing her injured companions. The rusted robot was downed and now the group focused on the drones. Just like Jake said, the drones were already banged up and easy to take care of.

With the last drone vanquished, Sazh patted Jake on the back and gave Vanille credit for helping them stay on their toes. Sazh lead the group to a dead end. He saw some kind of contraption in the middle of the path. Jake pushed some buttons and started the thing. He and Sazh jumped when the machine shot out a hook and pulled an object out of the way. "I knew that was gonna happen." Sazh said with a shaky tone.

Soon the gang met up with Chance and Hope. Sazh looked around and couldn't find Lightning anywhere. "Where's the ex-soldier?"

Both Chance and Hope looked up at the cliff. "She went up there. Maybe she went to scout onward or decided to leave us behind." Chance said. Jake could tell the tabby was clearly mad at her for leaving them.

"She just left y'all behind? That lady is clearly out of her mind." Jack said.

Sazh made his way to a machine on the wall and pressed the buttons. The wall seemed to have moved revealing a new path leading up. "No sense just sitting here. Let's go." Chance said to Hope. The young boy got up slowly and followed behind.

Sazh lead the group through some hard battles with Watchdrones, Pulsework soldiers, and the new monsters, Incubus and Succubus. They managed to stay alive to find Lightning. She turned around and was amazed on how far they have gotten on their own.

"What's the big deal leaving us behind like that?" Chance growled at Lightning. She got ticked of by the big kats invasion of her space and punches him in the gut. The tabby winced but he wasn't down. "You're so lucky you're a lady, lady." Chance warned her.

"You're just as hardheaded as Snow. No wonder I couldn't stand being around you. You reminded me of Snow in so many ways." Lightning stormed off and continues onward in the path. Sazh, Vanille, and Hope followed her.

"Easy, Chance. I have the feeling that something else is bothering her." Jake said. Chance knew something was making her angry. And it wasn't him. It had to be something else.

Everyone stopped at another dead end. "That's just our luck." Sazh breathed out. The giant pile of junk in the middle of the area made a sound. Lightning eyed the pile for a second realizing what it is.

The pile began to move faster. Everyone backed away slowly as the giant weapon from Pulse gathered together to become the Dreadnought. The robot seemed to be like a long boxed vehicle with two giant arms and short legs. It released steam and made a loud whistling sound. "And I thought those rust buckets were the only trouble we were gonna get." Jake said.

"Here it comes." Lightning warned as it swung its arms at them. Hope started to boost the group's defenses with his Protect spell. Chance fought melee style and Lightning fought with her weapon, while Jake, Vanille, and Sazh attacked with their magic.

The Dreadnought was taking so much damage, but it doesn't seem their attacks are doing any good. The robot swings its arms again but this time, it releases flames from its hands. Everyone quickly got out of the way to avoid the fire.

Chance was too close to the Dreadnought so he rolled underneath it to prevent from getting burned. The party continued to attack relentlessly at the machine with Hope now casting magic at the Dreadnought too.

The Dreadnought opened up its body to reveal the large cannon. Every gasped at the sight and tried to back away, but it was too late. The machine fired and created a hole that caused the whole party fall in it. "Is everyone okay?" Jake asked.

"I'm just peachy." Sazh said with a sarcastic tone. Jake gives Sazh a smile that made it look like he knew Jake's question was a dumb one. Vanille and Hope groaned when they got up.

"That thing is still after us!" Chance said as he saw the Dreadnought jump down to finish them off.

The party focused on the threat before them. Vanille used her magic to weaken the machine's defenses. Lighting slashed away with her blade. "I have and idea." Jake said as he stopped Chance. He nodded and went for it.

The Dreadnought swung its arms and Chance jumped on them and held on. He started to climb up the arm and landed on top of the machine. He looked around to see if he could find somewhere to place the device Jake gave him. Then the machine opened up its body again. Chance almost slid off the machine and jumped back into its arms. Then he saw it. He pressed the button and threw the device into the mouth of the cannon. Chance quickly ran out of the way as fast as possible.

The dreadnought exploded. The explosion was huge that the group was forced back a bit. When everyone recovered, they saw the broken machine. Jake and Chance exchanged cheerful looks. Lightning stormed up to them, "Are you two out of your minds?" Her stare reminded them of another Kat they personally don't like. "I know you two are trying to help, but we are on the run and pull stupid stunts like that, we are sure to be found!" Lightning scolds.

They two toms turn their focus on everyone else. Sazh and Hope both had an angry stare, but Vanille just shrugged and smiled at them. Chance and Jake gave them apologetic looks. "Let's move. We can't stay here any longer." Lightning said.

Everyone began to walk on. Chance and Jake were behind everyone else. "Even in this world we are being yelled at for our crazy stunts." Chance said. Jake couldn't help but give a faint smile.

Lightning lead the group to an area where they can rest. "So what's the plane now soldier?" Sazh asked as Lightning leaned on the wall of a wing of a downed aircraft. She looked up at the sky. The night sky showed a lot of stars. Only on star shined the brightest, only it wasn't a star.

"I'm going to Eden and destroy it." Lighting said. Everyone gave her a shocked a look.

"So you're going to play the role of a l'Cie? You're going to take down Eden. Tell me, how do you plan on doing that on your own?" Sazh asked.

Lightning looked away. "I'm going to head for Palumpolum. There I will find try to find a way to Eden." Sazh couldn't believe that she is being serious about this.

Why is destroying Eden so shocking?" Chance asked. All of everyone's shock turned towards him. "I mean-what is it that makes Eden bad? I always thought of Eden as a beautiful garden with absolute perfection. But I guess that's a different story here."

"Eden isn't a garden. It's a city." She pointed to the brightest star in the sky. "It's the very source of Cocoons power and life. Fal'Cie created l'Cie to destroy Eden. For what reason, I don't know. Since I'm a l'Cie, might as well destroy it."

"But didn't your sister tell us to save Cocoon." Jake spoke out. She looked at him. That was the very same thing Snow told her until she punched him across his face. She storms off heading towards the right path. Jake followed her and Hope was right behind him.

"Take me with you." Hope asked. Lightning looked at Hope with questioning eyes. "I want to get stronger. And I thought if I went with you, I will."

"This isn't some kind of training session. I don't have time to baby sit you." Lightning said.

Jake was about to say something when all of a sudden there was an explosion behind them. Rubble and debris fell and blocked the path where they came from. They looked at the path ahead of them and saw PSICOM soldiers heading towards them.

Lightning pulled out her sword. Jake readied himself for close combat. Hope didn't hesitate to react for the coming battle. She thought that maybe Hope was being serious about trying to get stronger. She wanted to know why.

* * *

><p>Sazh, Chance, and Vanille saw Jake and Hope run towards Lightning. Sazh gave out a heavy sigh. "There is no way that little tom will convince her that her sister was telling us to save Cocoon."<p>

Vanille sat next to Chance. "So, Eden is a garden in your world? How does it look like? Have you been there?" The tabby couldn't help but smile by her curiosity. She gave him a weird look.

"In our world, Eden is a myth. I don't know how to explain it sense…" Chance was interrupted by a loud explosion. He turned and saw the rubble collapse, blocking the path.

"Jake!" he screamed and ran down to the wall of debris. He heard gun fire. Sazh and Vanille stopped right behind him.

"It looks like PSICOM found them." Sazh said. Chance was worried. He didn't expect to be separated from Jake again. He was beginning to hate this world even more.

"We should run." Vanille suggests. Chance looks at her with angry eyes.

"We can't just leave them! They need our help!" Chance yelled.

"They have Lightning. I'm sure they will be alright." And with that, Sazh and Vanille ran the other way.

'If anything happens to Jake, I'll…" Chance got his mind together and followed the other escapees.


	7. Seven: Fight or Flight

Chapter 7: Fight or Flight; Odin and Hashmal's Judgment

**Alright, in this chapter, Hashmal is an eidolon (esper) from FF12. I gave this one to Chance since he needs one for the following stoy. I know the transformation for Hashmal is not so great but if you, the readers, can come up with a better aproach for his transformation, please let me know in a review. If you guys like the story so far, let me know on that too. Thanks.**

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><p>"Come on!" Jake was annoyed of the PSICOM trackers in the way of their path. He didn't have this much trouble avoiding the Enforcers in his world than he did in this world. Occasionally he would take the spot as Ravager so Hope could heal the party of three.<p>

Lightning volunteered to scout up ahead so Jake and Hope could rest for a while. "So, Hope right, why do you wanna get stronger?" Jake asked. Hope looked to the rocky earth. Jake eyed him for a moment and shrugged. "Don't think on it too much. Be sure for what ever reason you are doing this for is something you really want. Don't make a decision you will regret later."

Lightning came back and told the two that there are a few PSICOM soldiers in the path. "I'm sure you can handle a few more soldiers, right Hope?" Lightning asked. She started to walk back before Hope could even answer.

Hope was feeling really tired and was having trouble keeping up with Lightning and Jake's fighting abilities. He didn't want to prove Lightning was right and was wasting her time helping him.

"So, how do you plan we get through that big hunk of metal?" Jake eyed nervously at the Uhlan blocking the path. Hope was thinking the same thing.

"Easy, we fight." Lightning pulled out her sword. Jake made a stop motion with his hand.

"We can't always fight every enemy we encounter. Look, I know we are on the run but sometimes running is a better then getting ourselves caught or killed even." Jake said. Lightning couldn't believe the one kat she valued as a good asset for this escape was actually considering a flight plan.

"He may have a point Light." Hope pointed out.

"I thought you wanted to get stronger. Then that's what we are going to do." Lightning retorted. "Now, if we can come up with a plan, I'm sure we won't die fighting it."

"How about if we use my last scrap made bomb?" Jake pulled out the small bomb. "I know it's gonna show where we are, but we could use it to damage the robot since it looks like it could withstand the explosion. Then, we relentlessly assault it with everything we have until we bust every single bit of it."

Lightning was glad that the tom kat came up with the new plan. She didn't like the part with the bomb, but what other option did they have; other then fleeing of course. "Alright, we will use the bomb to cause damage. But when we destroy the Uhlan, be ready for any PSICOM soldiers that come running towards our direction."

Both Jake and Hope nodded. Jake's plan worked perfectly and Lightning's prediction was right on cue. Not only did they manage to defeat the soldiers, the rest of the path was a walk in the park.

Jake and Lightning were discussing about the difference between PSICOM and the Enforcers when they heard a thud behind them. Lightning glared at Hope, who happened to have triped. "You know what; this is a waist of time." She said in a cold tone. "Why don't you just go back and see if you can catch up with the others." Her chest was beginning to hurt.

"What? I can't go back. I'll try harder." Hope pleaded. Lightning feel to her knees.

"What's wrong Light?" Jake placed a paw on her shoulder.

Lightning brushes Jakes paw off her. "You know what else; I don't need you either!" Jake backed off. "The only thing you two ever did was hold me back!" The pain on her chest felt like it was going to burst. "I don't need anyone else! I can do this on my own!"

Soon, she was surrounded by a bright pink light. The eidolon Odin, holding a two blade lance in his right hand and a shield on the left arm, landed in front of Lightning. She slowly got back up and pulled out her sword. Hope and Jake were ready by her side. Odin launched a dark spell at Lightning and she felt her life slowly being drained away.

Odin swung his blades downward and then spun to swing them across. Lightning and Jake dodged barely getting a graze on their back. Hope managed to set up Protect and Shell on Jake, Lightning, and himself. Odin pointed his blade to the sky and called forth a powerful Thundara spell that landed on Hope and Jake.

Lightning made the call to switch to diversity. Hope healed himself and Jake, Jake focused on launching chains of spells as Lightning made successful slashes. Odin swung at Lightning with his blade and gashed her right arm. Blood was oozing out quickly but Hope healed her wound and she quickly went back for an attack.

Odin pulls out his shield. Lightning sword was bounced of the shield. "Alright, paradigm shifts to Tri-disaster!" She ordered. Hope, Jake, and Lightning were all now Ravagers. They fired chain after chain of spells towards Odin. Clearly the shield the eidolon set up wasn't working.

Then Lighting felt a surge of power. She could hear the eidolon's voice. It told her she wins. Odin planted his blade to the ground and jumped to the air. Everyone saw Odin transform into a horse. It galloped towards Lightning; she picked up the blade, removed the hinges of the huge double bladed weapon and held each blade in her hands. She climbed the horse and takes control.

Odin disappears. Lightning placed a hand on her chest. She then turns to Jake and Hope and gave them a sheepish look. "Thanks."

"It was nothing." Jake replied. "So, what did you do to that thing? It looked like you knew how to tame it."

"I don't know. Somehow, I was just given this knowledge of how to tame it and gain control of Odin." Lightning said.

"I could be from our l'Cie powers." Hope spoke out. Lightning looks towards Hope. "Do you still want me to leave?"

"No. I only said that so you wouldn't get hurt." Lightning confessed. "I'm sorry if I made you feel worthless. I'm sorry to you too Jake or Razor."

"It's alright. Call me whatever you feel comfortable using." Jake said.

"Alright, let's move out Hope, 'Jake'." Lightning said. Jake smiled at how she stressed his name.

The three walked towards a huge junk pile. Later to realize it was another Dreadnought. Lightning and Jake reacted to the sight but the thing didn't even move. Hope walked to it. "Maybe we can use it." Hope started to climb on the pulse weapon.

"That's doesn't sound like a good idea Hope." Jake said. Hope ignored him and got comfortable on the seat. He began to push buttons and pull leavers until the Dreadnought started to wake up and get on its heavy rusted feet.

"Hope!" Both Jake and Lightning called out.

"Whoa!" Hope held on with all his might. Hope seemed to have turned on the weapon. "Hmm, let's see if…" Hope pushed a leaver forward and the Dreadnought began to walk forward.

"Let's follow behind. I'm sure Hope can handle the rest of the way." Jake placed both is paws behind his head and followed Hope. Lightning sighed.

Hope did a good job clearing the path of Pulsework Soldiers. Hope didn't pay attention and he with the Dreadnought fell to the bottom of a cliff. Hope rolled off and landed near the damaged and disfigured Pulse weapon. Lightning and Jake helped Hope up. "You okay? You took one nasty fall there kid." Jake said. Hope nodded.

Soon the three reached a place where they can rest for the night. "I'll have first shift. I'll wake you up latter Jake for the second shift." Lightning said. Jake pouted, but nodded anyways.

'I wonder how Chance is doing.' Jake pondered in his head.

* * *

><p>The three were walking down a path after passing through bridges Sazh activated, Pulsework Soldiers, and Bombs. Chance was having a little trouble concentrating on the fights and was too worried about Jake. The tabby stopped. Vanille turned around, "What's wrong Chance?"<p>

"You guys go on ahead. I'm going back to see if I can still save them." Chance immediately turned around.

"Whoa there big guy, we already made it this far and I'm sure your friend is alright." Sazh said. "Besides, it's better if PSICOM is after them than us."

Chance made a fist and turned towards Sazh. "If you weren't so busy being a coward, you could have helped them. I don't give a damn if you don't want to help Lightning destroy Eden. We could have talked her out of it if we…" Chance's right hand was burning up. His brand began to glow and was shrouded with a green aura.

The ground began to shake. The aura covered the earth and huge columns of jagged rocks burst from the ground. Then the rocks break and a feral creature appeared. It resembled a lion with a white mane around his head. A big muscled creature with a weapon grappled around its forearms with two hooks but were cylinder shaped.

Chance looked up at the creature. The monster casts Doom on Chance. Chance was breathing at a faster pace. He readied himself for the fight. To his surprise, Sazh and Vanille were by his side. He thought they would have run away.

The feral creature, Hashmal, uses its weapon to hit Chance, but the tabby defends using Steelguard. Sazh casts chains of spells while Vanille casts Deprotect and Deshell towards Hashmal.

Chance noticed that Vanille successfully debuffed Hashmal, "New plan! Switch to Entourage." Sazh and Chance stay in their same battle role but Vanille switched to Medic to heal her injured members. After that was done, Chance orders to Paradigm Shift to Delta Attack.

Hashmal doesn't show any sign of letting down and counters by unleashing a powerful earth shaking Quake. Hashmal's attack did a lot of damage but not enough to down his victims. Since Chance is playing Sentinel, he reduced the damage he and his partners took.

Chance then felt a surge of power. He gave an order to the eidolon and it obeyed. Hashmal went from two legs to all four. The grapple weapon bent back a bit and acted like shields. Chance jumped on top of Hasmal and was ready for combat. Hashmal roared as soon as Chance gained control. He has accepted Chance as his master.

Sazh walked up to Chance, "What did you do?"

"I don't know. Somehow I just knew what to do. I felt this power course through me and I…well you just saw what I did." Chance rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry I called you a coward. I was just so worried about Jake and the others." The tabby gave Sazh a sheepish smile.

"Don't sweat it." Sazh said. "I gave it a little thought and I wonder if you happen to be right."

"I know we will be safe knowing that Chance has the eidolon, Hashmal, by his side." Vanille said. "Let's get going."

"Yeah" both Chance and Sazh said.

The group went to a new area with more use of pushing buttons. Chance suggested they should split up. Sazh and Vanille go left while Chance goes to the right. Chance fought off Pulsework Soldiers alone but he was able to stagger them by switching between Commando and Ravager.

Soon the group meets up and presses the last button. The giant machine in the middle of the area begins to light up. A gate blocking the path opens and reveals more Pulsework Soldiers and Bombs. Now with the group together and a lot of help of Chance's new eidolon, they were able to get past them.

"Let's take a break here." Chance said. He sat down near the edge of a cliff.

"Yeah, I'm sure we will be alright but just to be sure…" Sazh walks up to the tabby. "You take first shift."

"What?" Chance couldn't help the outburst.

Vanille smiles at the tabby's reaction. Her eyes drift to a blanket on the pile of scrap. Vanille takes it and places it on the ground where she can sleep. Sazh walks up to Vanille and she stops him. She picks up a small metal pole and draws a line on the ground, "That's your half and this is my half." She lies down on the blanket. "Goodnight." Vanille said cheerfully.

Sazh gives a heavy sigh and lies down on his half. Chance smirks at Vanille childish behavior. Then he goes in his mind and starts thinking that kids shouldn't be able to experience this kind of trouble. It could permanently scare them. Just like how Hope was scared.

Sazh and Vanille were sleeping and sawing logs. Chance couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and leans on a big rock near the wall. He slowly lets his eyes succumb to sleep.

Sazh is suddenly awakened. He turns to see that Vanille is leaning against his back. "Poor kid," Sazh whispered. Sazh goes back to sleep.


	8. Seven2: Reminiscing

Chapter 7-2: Reminiscing

**This chapter is a follow up of chapter 7. It's to introduce a new character that will play a fatal role later on in the story. Also, it's to show the connection between Snow and Serah. This chapter is based on the ending of Disk one. Two more Disks to go everyone.**

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><p>A giant ship flies through the skies of Cocoon. A small ship nears the Lindblum and docks.<p>

A doorway opens and Snow is leaded into the hanger. Snow is handcuffed and glares around the area. He sees PSICOM soldiers all over the place. One PSICOM soldier walks toward the woman in blue robes, "He's come to meet you." The woman grunts to accept his notice.

Snow sees a man walking towards him. He was wearing a long white robe and his hair was long raven black. He resembled the high authority of Eden and was controlling the soldiers in the ship because the other PSICOM soldier salutes as he passes by.

"Halt." A soldier moves his hand in front of Snow.

The man walks up to Snow, "You must be Snow." The soldiers guarding around Snow salutes. The man sticks his hand out, "Cid Raines. Brigadier general of this fleet."

"Hi, Cid." Snow ignores Cid's gesture for a hand shake. "Thanks for the escort."

Cid lowers his hand. "Apologies. I just had a few questions to ask you." A couple of drones carry the incased crystal of Serah. "If it works like they tell us, that means she must have fulfilled her focus."

Snow tries to reach his fiancée. "Serah!" The woman in the blue robes stops him from getting close. She shakes her head at Snow.

"Fulfilled her focus as a tainted Pulse l'Cie, that is." Cid removes his gaze from the crystal Serah.

"You thing she was out to hurt Cocoon?" Snow yelled.

"I'd hardly be alone if I did. When it comes to Pulse, who could claim to know anything?" He returns his focus on Snow. "I need the truth, for the sake of Cocoon."

"'For the sake of Cocoon…'" Snow mocks, "We're from Cocoon! Shipping us out, Purging innocent people…" Snow was now even angrier. "That's how you lend us a hand?"

Cid remains calm. "Those are the Sanctum's methods. The public fears what it doesn't know. It's grown tired of living in constant terror of those threats from the world below. So, the Sanctum devised a plan for you l'Cie."

Snow glares at Cid. "I'll bet."

"A public exacution." Cid said. Snow tries to run his way towards Cid. "The people don't know any better. Strike down the phantoms before their eyes, and they sleep like babes."

"No!" Snow frees himself. The woman kicks him in the chest and Snow lands on his back.

"The Sanctum has intelligence on the other l'Cie already. It's only a matter of time." Cid said.

"You'll never catch them." Snow glares at Cid. He doesn't try to get back up.

Cid glares back at Snow. "I see. We'll need your help then, won't we?" Cid walks away.

The woman in the blue robes walks towards Snow to get him back up to his feet. He resists and rolls to his side. "Serah…" Snow whispered.

* * *

><p>Day 7- Seaside City of Bodhum<p>

Snow looks at Serah. Serah stares at the ground. "You're kidding, right?"

"I mean it." Serah then begins to walk pass Snow.

Snow breaths out a heavy sigh and followed Serah. "You can't drop the breakup bomb like that." Serah continues to walk off. "Being alone's all right, I guess. Yep. Always was until we met." Snow stops at the top of the steps. "But then we did. And now I know there's something better: being with you." Serah stops walking but doesn't turn around. "We've come too far to quit now."

"It's not your choice!" Serah finally turns to meet Snows eyes.

"You really want to leave me?" Snow walks down the stares to get to Serah.

"I don't _want _to, I haveto." Serah said. "Listen, it's over. Please, just stay away from me." Serah continues to walk away from Snow.

"What happened? At least tell me that." Snow pleaded. "If it was something I did, just say it."

Serah turns around again. She was hesitating to answer. "Okay." Serah moves her hand towards her left arm and removes the white band. She then turns to show Snow, "Look, branded by Pulse." Snow gasped out a small breath. "I'm a l'Cie."

"No…" Snow takes a step back.

"Enemy of Cocoon. Danger to us all." Serah said. Snow falls to his hands and knees. "Get it now? You're my enemy." Serah turns and stops for a moment. "Good-bye." Serah walks again but couldn't fight back her tears and began to run.

Snow stayed on his hands and knees for a couple minutes. He slammed his fist on the ground. "Serah!" Snow got up and ran after her.

Snow started his search at the beach. "Serah, where are you?" He walked around asking if they have seen Serah anywhere. They all gave him the same respond of 'no' and continued his search.

Snow walked into the bar that his friend tends to. She gets one look at him and just has to ask. "What with the long face? You and Serah had a fight?" She said in almost a cheerful tone. Snow explained what happened. "I don't mean to be insensitive, but if you get that upset just talking about breaking up, it's no wonder it happened." Snow decided to leave and go to the pier instead.

As Snow got close to the pier, he found her. "Serah!" Snow started to run towards her. Serah turns around in surprise to her ex-boyfriend. Snow grabs to her arm, "What is your focus?" Serah looks at Snow with an even bigger surprise. "L'Cie have a Focus, right? I'll go with you. Help you do it. Just let me."

Serah was hesitant. "No! If you're with me, the Sanctum will-"

"I will be with you!" Snow interrupts. "No matter what!" Serah and Snow look at each other directly in their eyes. "We've come too far to quit now." Snow said softly.

Serah turns her gaze away from Snow. "I don't know." She walks towards the edge of the pier. "I don't know my Focus. I'm gonna be a monster." Serah voice was slightly cracking from fighting back tears.

Snow embraces her tightly. "Not if I'm here. I'll protect you." Serah lets herself free from Snows embrace but still turns to meet his eyes. "We'll figure this out—do it together. Okay?"

Serah smiles, "Okay." She returns the embrace to her boyfriend. "If it's true what they say…"

"Yeah."

"When we're finished, I'll turn into crystal." Serah said.

"Don't worry. When l'Cie complete their Focus, there are blessed with the gift of eternity." Snow looks up towards the sky. "They wouldn't call it eternity if you died." He returns his gaze towards Serah. She nods and they embrace one last time. "You'll see. You and me, we'll always be together."


	9. Eight: Getting Stronger

Chapter 8: Getting Stronger

Lightning scouts ahead. She transformed her Blazefire Saber into gun mode and hides behind a branch from a near by tree. No one is in the way and she motions for Jake and Hope to get in.

Hope leans close to Lightning, "Can't believe we made it." The doorway behind them closes.

"That'll slow down pursuit." Lightning said.

"But aren't there troops on this side?" Jake asked. "We can't relax just yet." He couldn't help being a little worried.

"Right. We press on." She scans a look at Jake and Hope. "I'll take point. You two watch our backs."

Lightning turned around. "Actually…" Hope began to talk. "Why don't you let me take point?" Lightning and Jake give him a surprised look.

"Can you handle it?" Lighting asked.

Hope takes lead and turns to his two partners. "It's not a question of can or can't."

Lightning smiles a little bit at Hope. It seems he was listening after all. "Now you're learning." She nods at Hope and he returns the nod. Hope turns around and begins to take the lead. "Keep your eyes front. We'll watch the rear."

"Got it." Hope said. He continues onward.

"That boy is something." Jake added. "Who would have guessed you would make an excellent coach." Jake follows Hope. Lightning smiles at the comment and looks back gun blade held ready.

Hope led his group through the Gapra Whitewood. "Don't stray too far." Hope was advised. The woods were bright and the trees were tall and slim with branches the seemed more like blades on a slant pole. It does seem like somebody would get lost in these woods.

"Be wary, but don't be afraid." Hope nodded at yet another advice he remembered from Lightning's lessons. He led the party to a small band of slug like enemies. The group quickly dispatched them and kept on moving.

Lightning sees light coming from the ground. "We can use the lights as a guid to lead us in the right direction."

The group ends up facing yet another group of monsters only this time, they were PSICOM wolves. "Don't go chasing after enemies." Jake warns. "It's a surefire way to get ambushed." Again, Hope successfully dispatched the monsters. Hope is feeling a lot of confidence and is hoping that Lightning sees that he is progressing in strength.

Hope stopped and asked Lightning a question. "Have you ever been here before? On duty, I mean."

"No, I haven't." Lighting walks pass Hope a little bit. "This area is covered by the Woodlands Observation Battalion." She turns to Hope, "You scared?"

Hope lets out a small gasp. "Not really." He said trying not to sound scared. "I'm ready to fight if I have to." Hope walks on.

Lightning stops Hope and hands him a small knife. "What's that for?" Jake asked in surprise.

"It's to keep you safe." Lightning said avoiding Jake's question. Hope takes the knife without hesitation but in his mind he was thinking that it wasn't a good idea. He twirled it a bit in his hand, inspecting and studying the size and weight of the small knife. "I'll want it back." Lightning said heading towards the elevator. Jake glares at her for a moment.

"Lightning." She turns around to meet Hopes eyes. Hope steps a little closer to her. "I'm glad I followed you. By myself, I would've had no chance." Lighting nods at him and steps on the elevator with a patient tom already to go. Hope then gets on the elevator himself and starts it with the only button on the back of the elevator.

The party made good use of their powers to fight against the woods monsters. Hope was getting a good vibe from both Lightning and Jake. He knew this was going to be tough but he needs to move forward.

Hope hears something and stops. "What is it?" Lightning asked. She turns and sees that Jake had the same reaction as Hope.

We need to hide!" Jake warns. Hope takes Lightning's arm and pulls her under one of the trees branches. Jake hides just in time before a group of PSICOM soldiers was able to catch them as the soldiers flew pass by. Jake got a good look at them before he got out. "It doesn't seem like they're even looking for us. I mean, we're l'Cie and we're on the loose."

"PSICOM is keeping it all under wraps." Lightning said with a little hint of anger. "They don't want their failure publicized. Better to loose us than their pride."

"So the other soldiers don't know about us, right?" Hope asked.

"Right. They don't know _anything _about any fugitives." Lightning said very sarcastically.

Hope is growing even more tired from the battles. He nags himself to stay alert and focus. Jake can see that Hope is pushing himself to his limits. "You alright?" Hope gives the tom a nod.

"That's one of the bulkhead fal'Cie. Stay on guard." Lightning warns.

The three get close the bulkhead. Hope is panting and sits down on the platform. He releases a couple of breaths. "I wonder how the others are doing." Hope said.

"Sazh, Vanille, and Chance? Who knows?" Lightning answered. "Even if they got away, they'll get caught eventually. Then they'll have to choose: resist or surrender." Jake winces at what Lightning just said.

"Surrender…" Hope's anger begins to rise. "Do you think _he's _still alive?"

"You mean Snow?" Lightning turns to face Hope. "He's too stubborn to die." Lightning turns back around and scoffs. "And that's his best quality. He's arrogant and chummy from the get-go. He thinks he's everybody's pal. Never liked him much."

She folds her arms across her chest. "He leads around a bunch of kids-gang called 'NORA.'"

"Where'd they get the name 'Nora'?"

"It's a stupid acronym. Their little code." Lightning releases a sigh. "Stands for 'No Obligations, Rules, or Authority.' Must be nice." The bulkhead behind her glows and the path is open.

Jake and Lightning are ready to keep going. Hope gets up. "It's irresponsible." Hope passes between them. Jake and Lightning share a worried look, but cast it aside to press on.

The ride to the bottom of the woods was fairly quick. One good look here and Jake new Dr. Viper would gush over the monsters and the environment. "This is an army facility for turning wildlife into weapons." Lightning said. Jake now thinks that Dr. Viper would kill to get here.

"Civilians aren't allowed in here, are they?" Jake asked.

"We'll have to be sure and tell them if we see any." Lightning jokes. "This area is filled with feral creatures. They're a lot different from the military breeds so be careful." Hope and Jake nod.

Hope sees that something is blocking their path. "How do we keep moving? There isn't another path around it."

"Those fences are for containing the animals. If we take care of our pen-mates, they should power down." Lightning said.

"Right." Hope said to himself. "Let's rid of these monsters."

Lightning was right about the feral creatures being different from the military weapons. The Silver Lobos were causing a lot of trouble to the party. It would breathe out a poisonous gas and poison the three fugitives. After they vanquished the hoard of wolves, Lightning quickly takes out three small vials of antidotes to cure the poison.

Just like what Lightning said. The gate that blocked the path disappeared. Hope led the group through a painful process of opening the gates that were blocked. The three ran into an open area and the gates closed behind them. The lasers blocking their path had them caged.

"Caged like the animals." Lightning said in annoyance. A feral behemoth lands in front of them. The behemoth lunges at Light and she quickly dodges. Hope orders to Paradigm Shift to Hero's Charge. Jake changes to Commando, Hope to Synergist, and Lightning to Medic. Hope quickly cast Protect on himself and his partners. Then Hope orders to switch to Variety.

The behemoth was being weakened by Jakes Deprotect and Deshell. Jake even managed to infect it with poison to slowly kill the monster. The Feral Behemoth claws at Jake before he could even cast out Imperil. Lightning cast several fires and thunder spells but it doesn't seem to be doing a lot of damage.

Hope uses Libra to study the monster. To his surprise, it's strong against Fire and Thunder, but weak against Water. "Let's wrap this up!" Hope orders the group to Paradigm Shift to Relentless Assault. Lighting is back to Commando and the other two are Ravagers.

Hope knew that Jake learned how to cast Water and this was a good shift. The behemoth was beginning to glow as it nears its death. One last barrage of waters and steady slashing staggered the behemoth from changing into its more dangerous and bigger form.

Lightning launches the behemoth in the air and slashes it in mid-air. Jake and Hope work together to juggle the behemoth in the air. Lighting jumps back up and sends the behemoth crashing to the ground. The feral monster doesn't move. The laser gates disappear. They have won.

"We've tripped the security alarm. The Observation Battalion will be coming." Lightning warns Hope.

"Let them come." Hope said continuing to lead the group.

Hope leads the group somewhere they can rest for the time being. "Take five." Lightning said as she noticed how tired Hope has gotten. Jake looks around from to see how far they have gotten. Hope sits on the ground fiddling with the knife Lightning lent him.

"What's eating you?" Lightning asked. Hope was surprised that she didn't even look back. Jake pretended to not be interested and kept looking forward, but kept a good ear on them. "Okay, I can tell you're hung up on something."

Hope doesn't answer and keeps fiddling with the knife. "Is it the l'Cie thing?" Lightning asked. She turns around and puts on a serious tone. "It's Snow, isn't it?" Hope quickly looks up. Jake tried not to gasp out.

Lightning sees that Hope looked away. "What happened with him?" Lightning pestered on.

"You wouldn't understand." Hope said to quickly.

Lightning leans a little closer to Hope, knowing that Jake is eavesdropping. "You and I are partners, Hope." Jake flinched on what she said. A phrase he is too familiar with.

Hope releases a long sigh. "My mother was killed. Because of him." Hope sees images of his mother falling to her death. "It's his fault." Hopes tone deepens. He unsheathes the knife in his hand. "And he needs to pay for it. I'm not ready yet, but I will be. Soon." Hope flips back the blade into its case. "That's why I followed you." Jake leaned a little closer to listen. Hope got up and walked pass Lightning. "Snow dragged us all into this. You, Jake, and me; your sister Serah…" Jake listens to him and forgets he was eavesdropping. "He's gotta pay."

Lightning releases a quiet gasp. She looks at Jake. Jake looked away and was hoping Light wasn't mad for being nosey. Lightning just kept on walking. "You coming kat?" Jack rubbed the back of his neck and followed Lightning.

Lightning decided to take point. Hope was tired and taking rear would help him rest a bit. Lightning led the group out of the thick woods of feral creatures and back to the path of platforms. The path was blocked by a branch and she cuts it down with her sword.

"Could I use one of those?" Hope asked Lightning.

"Looks a bit too heavy for you kid." Jake said as he placed an arm around his shoulder and messing up Hope's hair with his other paw.

Hope gets free and looks back at Lightning. She agrees with Jake. Hope looked disappointed and he took out the knife.

Lightning stared at the knife. She reflects on the day she got it. The last day she saw her sister.

* * *

><p>Day 12- The Seaside City of Bodhum<p>

"You became a l'Cie, so now you're gonna marry this idiot? And you think I'm gonna by that?" Lightning glared at her sister Serah. "Full points for originality." She said sarcastically. "But don't forget. If you really are a l'Cie, it's my job to deal with you."

Serah looks at her sister with shock. "Sis…"

"This is ridiculous. Worst birthday ever." Lightning said.

Serah begins to cry and runs out the house. "Wait! Serah!" Snow tried to catch her but Serah has already gone out. Snow turns to Lightning and scolds her. "Why won't you believe her?"

Lightning quickly turns to Snow and gives him her icy glare. "You kidding me? She gets made a l'Cie, and you pop the question?"

Snow slams his hands on the table. "Lightning, stop it!"

Lightning slams her hands on the table. "No, you stop it! Get out of my house."

"You're shutting her out. She's your sister." Lightning backed away from Snow and turned her back on him. Snow backs away from the table. "Fine." Snow walks off. "I'll do it. I'll protect her." Lightning sighs when Snow left the kitchen.

Lightning was finishing up cleaning the kitchen. She walks towards the table and sees the gift left for her. Lightning removes the ribbon and opens the lid. She stops to see the knife in the box. She picks it up and unsheathed it. "How practical."

She heard beeping sounds coming from the big flat screen T.V. _We interrupt this program to bring you an urgent Sanctum bulletin._ Lightning quickly turns to listen to the news woman on the screen. _Late last night, officials confirmed the presence of a Pulse fal'Cie inside the city of Bodhum. Acting with fal'Cie Eden's approval, authorities declared a state of emergency. The entire district will be quarantined in response to this crisis. This is a Sanctum bulletin._ Lightning gasped at what she just heard.

* * *

><p>Lightning was walking slowly. "Serah, I should have listened to you." Lightning said to herself.<p>

"What's wrong?" Jake asked. He was worried that Lightning wasn't saying anything for quite a while.

"Oh. Nothing Jake. I'm fine." Lightning clears her head and leads the group onward. Lightning made good pace fighting off the monsters. The fights were now faster with her as leader. They haven't seen any soldiers yet. Lightning wondered what could have happened.

Soon the group made it to another elevator and rode it. Now there are no more monsters and now its back to fighting the PSICOM domesticated weapons. Jake decided to scout ahead. He saw some figures on the ground. When he got close to it, he gasped at the sight of dead soldiers. "What happened here?"

Lightning and Hope came up from behind. "Bad luck." Lightning said. "They came looking for us, and found something worse."

Jake feels a heavy weight of guilt. "We can't just leave them like this." Jake said. He motioned to help the soldiers.

"Don't touch anything!" Lightning pulls Jake away from the corpse. "Control your emotions. If you want to survive, you forget about sympathy."

Jake looks away from Lightning's stare. He should know that by now on his own. He had experienced this kind of emotions before and but that was when was tricked. This is real. He is one of the causes of these soldiers death.

"How can I explain?" Lightning thought for a moment. Then she comes up with an idea. Lightning gets in Jake's view. "Think of it like a strategy." Jake gave her a confused look. Hope was listening carefully "Focus on your ultimate goal and shut out everything else. Still your mind. Move on instinct." Lightning gets up. "Let doubt take over, and despair will cripple you."

Hope helps Jake gets back up. "Strategy. Good. I'll take anything to help me get through this." Hope said. Lightning was giving Jake the advice, but it seems Hope took more of a liking to the advice. Jake just went through his head sorting the things Lightning said. It sort of the same thing Chance told him when he 'injured' someone on his own world.

Hope took a couple steps away from the others. "I'll call it 'Operation Nora.'"

"NORA?" Lightning asked.

"My mother's name." Lightning was surprised by Hopes answer.

"Your revenge?"

"Yes." Hope said in a soft voice. "Don't tell me." Hope raised his voice, "I know getting revenge on him won't…bring her back." Hope turns around to look directly at Lightning, "I know that!" Lightning and Jake flinched when he yelled out. "But 'sorry' won't cut it."

Hope then begins to walk on. "Snow didn't kill your mother. The Sanctum did." Lightning said. Hope turned around and glared at her.

"Whose side are you on?" Hope yelled.

"The side of Truth." Lightning said.

Hope pulls out the knife Lightning lent him and pulls back the blade. "Fine. I'll fight the Sanctum with you. I'll learn to survive." Hope walks on. Jake slowly follows behind. Lightning sighs and follows behind the two males.

The party was silent. They have encountered some soldiers in the way but they were very few and easy to dispatch. Lightning and the others got a giant platform. Lightning started the platform to begin to ascend to the top. Once the platform comes to a stop, another PSICOM weapon appeared. This one was huge and looked like a giant plant. Hope took out his boomerang. "This is it. Operation Nora!" Hope advances and is ready to fight.

Lightning orders to shift to Hero's Charge. Jake is Commando, Hope is Synergist, and Lightning is Medic. The Aster Protoflorain strikes at Jake and dodges. Jake runs towards the plant and lands in some powerful punches and kicks to its head. Hope finished casting Protect and Shell, so Lightning orders to switch to Diversity. Jake switched from Commando to Ravager, Lightning from Medic to Commando, and Hope from Synergist to Medic.

Aster jumps back and launches a big bomb like attack. Hope was hit hard when it made contact and was blown back. He was tossed off the platform and Jake quickly grabs his hand. Jake pulls hard to get Hope back on the platform. The lean tom looks back and sees that the plant monster is running towards him.

Lightning quickly jumps in the way, but the plant monster stops. It opened the bud on its back and began to spin it like blades. Lighting was hit and tossed to the side. Jake was able to Hope back on the platform on time before the Protoflorain came after them for another attack.

Lightning staggers to get up. "Steady now!" Hope launched a couple of Cure spells at Lightning. Jake casts some Fire attacks. The plant them glowed bright red. The bud on its back seemed to look like it was on fire. "This plant seems to change elemental attributes." Jake pointed out.

"Focus on casting its weakness Jake!" Lightning ordered. "I'll help by distracting it on me." Lightning ran towards the plant. She slashes the plant on the face. The Protoflorain tries to slash her, but Lightning makes a back flip, transforms her blade into a gun and fires it before she lands on the ground. Her gun turned back into a blade in seconds.

"Take this!" Jake swings his right arm and casts a barrage of Water spells. The Protoflorain screeched in pain. It glowed again. The bud on its back seemed to turn back to normal.

"Quick Light, launch it in the air!" Hope suggested.

Lightning nodded. "Let's turn the tide!" She ordered to switch to Relentless Assault. Hope changed to Ravager. Lightning launches the plant in the air, makes a couple slashes and falls back down. Aster Protoflorain is descending back down. Hope and Jake juggle the plant in the air so they can stall to give Lightning some time to jump back up and attack.

Lightning jumps back up and slashes away. Before she falls back down, Lightning slams on the plant monster and sends it crashing to the ground. Protoflorain hit the ground hard and had trouble getting back to its four feet. Then it just suddenly stops and falls back down.

Hope closes his boomerang. "Step one of Operation Nora, complete." Hope walks on to the bulkhead.

Lightning and Jake wait beside Hope for it to open. Once through, Lightning sees a town up ahead. "So we finally make it."

"My hometown. Palumpolum." Hope said. "Or our first step into Eden."

"Hey Hope," Hope turns to Jake. "Don't you have a dad?" Jake asked.

"Yeah. But he would never take me in." Hope fisted his hands.

"You have to tell him." Hope looks at Lightning.

"She's right. You have to tell our old man what happened to your mom." Jake pointed out. Hope didn't respond. "I'm sure your dad will listen."

Hope let out a heavy sigh. "Alright." Hope said softly.


	10. Nine: Doubts at the Sunleth Waterscape

Chapter 9: Doubts at the Sunleth Waterscape

"Oh great," Chance sighs at the feel of the wet surface on the pads of his feet. "Never would have thought that we were gonna cross a swamp. I'm getting really sick of swamps."

"Sounds like you had your share of bad swamps." Sazh said. "And this isn't a swamp. It's more of a marsh." Sazh pats the tabby on his back. "Don't tell me you're afraid of an inch of water?"

"Leave him alone Sazh." Vanille chimed in and had a finger pointed at Sazh. "He was more help to us so I wouldn't go around making fun of him, pops." Chance laughed at the look on Sazh's face when he was called 'pops'.

"Hey, hey…" Sazh raised his hands defensively.

"Besides, we have to keep going unless we get discovered by PSICOM." Vanille turns to face the beauty of the waterscape. "Let's keep going, this place seems like a perfect place to explore." She then rushes to a patch of wild flowers and inhales the air.

Sazh and Chance stare at Vanille. "Boy, that girl has a lot of energy." Sazh rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know how a kid her age has so much enthusiasm."

"Vanille is a free spirit, I can tell you that much." Chance began to walk to the girl motioning them to move. 'Even so, her face tells me another story. Something is bothering her.' He thought.

"Come on!" Vanille hollers, "I think I see a road we can walk on further ahead!" She notices the two males run towards her and smiles. Then she looks confused by their worried expression. A gurgling sound could be heard from behind her.

"Get down!" Sazh ordered. She obeyed and Sazh fired bullets infused with fire. The flan like creature screeches in pain. Vanille quickly moves towards Chance and pulls out her Binding Rod.

"You okay?" Chance asked. She nodded and took her stance. "Alright, let's take care of this slime ball." Chance rallied. 'If only I had my glovatrix, I would have used a mini-match head missile, which would dispose of it quickly.'

The flan yells again. The ground around them began to sprout more of the flans from the patches of wild flowers. "More Flandragoras!" The group was surrounded. "This is not our lucky day." Sazh said worried.

"Looks like slime ball here called for back-up." Chance sheeted his claws. "Look out, here they come!"

One Flandragora makes for Vanille but she stops it with a successful chain of fire and aero spells. Then the rest made for the group. Chance quickly dodges a wild punch and lands a fiery punch of his own, earning an awarding screech from the flan monster. Chance gasped when he was grabbed by the very Flandragora he hit. The tabby struggled to get himself free. Then the flan opens its mouth to eat the trapped tabby.

Fire bullets hit the Flandragora's arms and released Chance. "Thanks Sazh, I owe ya one." There were three flans left. Vanille and Sazh took care of one but these monsters won't take so much damage.

"Deshell!" Vanille yelled. They were all hit by the debuff spell. "It's now our chance to strike with magic; Sazh, focus on using fire and Chance with firestrike." The two males nodded. Vanille did the same as Sazh. Soon they dispatched another flan.

"Alright!" Chance chanted. The remaining Flandragoras hiss in fear. "It seems they realized who they're messing with. Now let's…" The three gasp when one of the flans consumes its partner. "What the…?"

The three stare at the flan grow into an even bigger Flandragora. Its screech was more head splitting. The screech paralyzed the chosen l'Cies in place. It then swung its huge flexible arms and sent Sazh and Chance flying back hitting the wet surface on their back.

"Vanille!" Sazh yelled for her to move. She just slouched there, still affected by the daze. The giant flan raised its arms again to smash Vanille. The flans attack was blocked by Chance's steelguard.

"Pull yourself together Vanille!" Chance ordered. Vanille heard the tabby's voice. She shook her head and regained her stance. Sazh came back to help stop the giant Flandragora.

The Flandragora swung its arms wildly in the air. Vanille began to cast spell after spell of Deshells while Sazh gets a good chain of fire spells. Chance did his best to stay alive while taking most of the damage from the flans wild swings.

Chance falls to his knees and is breathing faster. 'I can't take another hit.' He thought. He sees a green light from Vanille's position. Soft white lights land on Chance and he regains his strength. "Thanks," Chance smiled dumbly at Vanille. "I should have said something."

"Don't mention it." Vanille said still focused on the Flandragora. She then surrounds herself in blue light and starts to cast fire spells. Chance joins her by landing in some firestrikes of his own. The Flandragora screams in pain. The deshells Vanille casted made the monster weaker to the l'Cie's magical power. With one last barrage of fire spells, the giant flan melts away and its ooze fall of the side of the path.

All three l'Cie relax. Sazh and Vanille put their weapons back in their place. "If only it was that easier back in Megakat City when Viper attacks us like that." Chance said. He turns and was given a strange look on both his friends' faces.

"Viper? Who's that?" Vanille asked.

"A mad scientist who want to turn the city Jake and I protect into a swamp." Chance said bluntly.

"That explains why you hate swamps." Sazh chimed in. "Don't worry; dry land is just beyond this area. I know of a place where the three of us can have fun after getting out of here." Chance gave Sazh a questioning look.

The party then continues forward through the waterscape. Vanille led them to a cliff that was filled with shelled monsters. Vanille told the others that they are too powerful, so they avoided them. They were spotted by the Scalebeasts, but the monsters were too sluggish to really catch them.

"Let's rest here." Sazh said as he lay down on the flat grassy rock near a small pond. Vanille walks to the other flat grassy rock next to Sazh's. She quickly closes her eyes and sleeps.

Chance sat near the rock Vanille was lying on. He took in the sight of the area, the feel of the wind and water vapor and the sound of crashing water from the small pond's water fall. All these sounds soothed and lulled him to sleep.

* * *

><p>Jake and the others were panting heavily in the mountains. They were running away from PSICOM soldiers. Hope trips and was captured. Lighting and Jake fight to help Hope get free, but their efforts were meaningless. All three l'Cie were now captured. A PSICOM soldier placed a gun to Hope's head. BANG! Lighting tried to resist the soldiers hold on her. She gasps when the steel tip touched her forehead. BANG! Jake didn't do anything. He knew this was the end. The cinnamon tom gave Hope and Lighting one last look. Then he mouthed something. BANG!<p>

* * *

><p>Chance woke up instantly. His shaking and breathing was his indication of a terrible dream. The tabby placed his paws on the crown of his forehead. 'Don't give me that. Don't tell me you're sorry.' He slowly breathed and tried to calm himself down. He looked up and noticed Sazh and Vanille were gone.<p>

There was a voice coming from down the cliff. Chance got up to see if it was Sazh. Sure enough, it was.

"…but the bird says no." Sazh puts his pistol away. He walks back and sees Chance is awake. Vanille stood there as Sazh passed by her.

"Everything alright?" Chance asked. The tabby was given a lazy nod from Sazh. Chance turns and sees Vanille was walking back towards them.

"Let's keep going." Vanille said. Her tone made Chance worry about her. It wasn't its usual cheerful tone. This tone sounded more of remorse.

* * *

><p>The three l'Cie found themselves marveled by what the bubble in the path does. Vanille touched the bubble and it bursts. The sky turned gray and it began to pour rain. The bubble came back, but it was a different bubble. The new bubble was red.<p>

"This bubble seems to control the weather of this area." Chance hypothesized. "And not just the weather."

"Yeah," Sazh looked up ahead in the path, "it also affects what kind of nasty monsters appear in dry and rainy weather."

"Look over there." Vanille points to another red bubble up ahead. "Maybe we should use them to change the kind of monsters we can easily fight to make it out of here easier."

"Now that's a plan." Sazh agreed. "An army of hedge frogs is a real threat. So if we change the weather to dry, we can clear the path for a different kind of monster. Then again…"

"We'll have to fight the new monsters to get past them." Chance finished Sazh's sentence. "Sounds like a plan that will work. Besides, the faster we get out of here the better."

The l'Cie made good work controlling the weather and monsters. Sazh was right about the hedge frogs. An army of those things can be real trouble. Not as much trouble as a pack of gremlins and flandragoras. Soon they were past all of the monsters and weather control bubbles.

The three l'Cie were all chatting when they heard snoring. They got quiet. In their path were two large monsters. "What do you think we do?" Vanille asked.

"We sneak by them of course." Sazh answered in a low voice. He didn't want to wake them up. The l'Cie quietly walk to the path leading up the cliff. Chance's ears perk back when one of them woke up.

"So much for sneaking around." Chance said sarcastically. Then the other monster woke up when the first one roared. "We don't have a choice, we have to fight!"

Chance started to get the monsters attentions. He wanted to distract them while Vanille weakened them with deshell and deprotect spells and Sazh strengthening his partners with faith and bravery.

The tabby groans when the blue monster tackles and pushes him back. "Bet you can't do that again." Chance seethed his claws and jumped on the blue monsters back. Then the green monster blasts Chance with a thunder spell.

"Chance!" Sazh and Vanille screamed. The tabby still held on to the blue monsters back. Then Vanille noticed that the blue monster didn't like to be shocked either.

"Don't let go Chance!" Vanille said. "I'll heal you; just don't let those things knock you off!"

"What are you up to?" Sazh questioned the young girl.

"The blue monster didn't like the shock from the green monsters attack, so we should let the green monster hurt its partner for us."

"But Chance is gonna," Sazh pieced the plan together, "Provoke the green monster Chance! I'll back you up by hitting the blue monster with sparkstrick."

"No sweat." Chance managed to say after getting shocked again by the green monsters thundara spell. The blue monster roared in pain and tackled the green monster. 'Now I see what Vanille is planning.' The tabby struggled to grip on to the blue monster's back from the collision.

Vanille's plan was working perfectly. The blue monster tackled the green monster again and Chance fell over on the green monsters back. Vanille and Sazh gasp when the plan changed. Chance quickly recovered and jumped out of the way before blue monsters next tackle. It sent the green monster to its back and it stopped moving.

"One down," Chance said, "And one weakened monster to go."

The blue monster then surrounds itself in water. The water then turns to light. "It increased its defense and strength." Vanille gasped out. She groans in frustration. "This is getting really difficult."

"So much for weakened." Sazh said sarcastically. Sazh smirks when the tabby gave him a quick glare.

"Alright, this is the new plan." Chance said as the blue monster slowly got closer. "We shock the crap out of it. All or nothing."

Vanille once again shrouds herself in blue light and begins to cast thunder spells. Sazh and Chance focused on using sparkstrick attacks. The blue monster struggled from the attacks. Then it quickly panics and sends a powerful quake attack. The three l'Cie lost their balance and were hurt by the earth energy coursing from the ground up.

Chance got up to his knees. A big shadow hovered around him. He looked up and saw that the monster was about to trample him. Just then Sazh fired his bullets at the monsters face. Each shot pushed the monster back a bit. Chance used the rest of his strength to jump and send a spark infused punch to the monster's face. The punch sends the monster crashing hard to the ground and it too stopped moving.

Vanille quickly heals Chance with her cure spell. Even though Chance feels better, he can still feel the fatigue from the battle. "Let's not ever do a plan like that again." Chance breathed out. Sazh and Vanille both give him a light laugh.

"Come on big guy." Sazh helped the tabby to his feet. "Just a little further and we'll be at the docks."

The l'Cie then walk up the cliff they tried to sneak to. After a long day of traveling in the waterscape, they were all relived to see the docks. "Where are we heading?" Vanille asked.

"It's a surprise." Sazh replied too quickly.

Vanille pouts as she goes through the hole in the electric fence. When they reached the docks, it started to rain. Sazh and Chance sat on a bench. Vanille looked around with full curiosity.

"To tell you the truth, I wanted to take Dahj to the place we're heading after the fireworks from Bodhum. But then the purge started and he was taken." Chance saw Vanille's expression change to a poignant look. "If it weren't for those Pulse l'Cies, Dahj wouldn't have been made into a Cocoon l'Cie."

Vanille runs into the rain. "You're gonna catch something if you stay there too long." Chance said softly. Vanille just looked back at the tabby and gave him a soft smile. She then turns to look in the sky to hide her tears.


	11. Ten: L'Cie Hunt in Palompolum

Chapter 10: L'Cie Hunt in Palumpolum

PSICOM soldiers gather around in their ships and air cruisers. A man with sliver hair is giving orders to capture the pulse l'Cie. If they were met with resistance, they were ordered to kill on the spot.

Lighting, Hope and Jake take cover behind an iron crate. Lighting scouts the area to see if they could fight their way in. "There are too many soldiers, so we need to stay on full alert."

"I don't think so," Hope said, "There is another way into Palumpolum. It's a short-cut only we kids know about."

Jake pokes his out to see what was going on. He sees the silver haired man flaunting orders with his right hand. "Now way," Jake said annoyed. "That guy has my glovatrix." The tom tried really hard not to yell.

"How do you know that's yours?" Hope asked.

"I left mine at the lake, which was stupid, and they must have found it."

"Well getting it back will be rather difficult." Lighting said. "But first we need to get inside Palumpolum and then find a ship to take us to Eden." She turns to Hope, "Where is this other entrance?"

"It's just above the main gate." Hope pointed out. "We can take the underground pipes on this side to reach it."

"Alright," Lighting looked out from the side again. The soldiers weren't looking at their direction. "Let's move." The three l'Cie move to the next iron crate, then the rest of the path was open. She stops when she heard PSICOM soldiers the closer she got to the end of the open path. Lightning listens for footsteps to move away. It took a while but the soldier finally moves.

Lightning was glad when they finally made it to the pipe. She let Jake and Hope get in first. "This pipe will take us back outside, but don't worry; the next pipe will lead us to Palumpolum's underground complex." Hope said.

They got out one by one to the next open area. "More Soldiers." Jake sighed. It was obvious that they had to fight off this small group. The soldiers weren't even worth the challenge. That made Jake suspicious.

"Okay, her it is." Hope led the two into the pipe.

"Impressive." Jake looked around the huge area. He looked off the side of the platforms and saw water at the bottom, then to the huge bright orange thing in the center.

"I don't think they found the hidden pipe." Hope said nervously.

"If they haven't, they will eventually and send a search squad." Lightning replied. "They are going to search every inch of this place until they capture us."

"Well there is no reason to just stand around, well be sitting ducks. So let's go." Jake began to walk ahead. Getting his glovatrix back was the only thing on his mind.

The pathways were empty and the platforms were the only way to get to the next pathway. As they continued, Jake couldn't help but wonder what could be inside the crates they pass by. Also, what the huge orange thing in the center could be.

"I see you find the Cocoon fal'Cie interesting." Hope said as he watched the brown tom kat eye the thing even wider.

"That thing is a fal'Cie? What does it do?"

"It provides the people of Cocoon food and shelter." Hope explained. "We act like pets to them and we see them as our masters."

Lightning gasps at what Hope just said. "You're right. We are pets to them. I have been a pawn to the fal'Cie this whole time. I depended on them to survive. Now that I'm a pulse l'Cie, they abandon me. They abandoned us."

Hope and Jake stare at Lightning with concern. "Hope, we're done."

"W-what? Done with what?"

"Operation Nora is over." Lightning clarifies.

"You can't do that! You told me to stick to my goals and now you want me to just forget about it! I won't!" Hope yelled.

"Hey calm down," Jake stopped Hope from getting closer to Lightning, "yelling won't do us any good. Try thinking that Operation Nora is postponed for now and you can continue it later." Hope huffs out a breath.

"Right."

"I'm sorry Hope." Lightning said softly.

Soon, the l'Cie made it to the end of the path. There was an elevator and Lightning pressed the button to go up. Hope quickly got inside once the doors opened. "I'm still going to get my revenge on Snow. I promise you that." Lightning released a worried gasp and got in the elevator after Jake.

The ride up didn't take long. The doors open and Lightning, Hope and Jake exit the small lift. It was quiet, too quiet perhaps. The huge screen in the area began to say that they have found the location of the run away l'Cie. Then it showed three l'Cie on the screen from sky view.

A massive hoard of PSICOM soldiers surrounds them. Lightning had her blade ready as a gun. Hope and Jake readied themselves for the coming battle. "Hope and Jake," The two listen to Lightning, "when I give the signal, run."

"I'm not leaving you!" Both said.

"Pulse l'Cie." The silver haired man said. "Please surrender and turn yourselves in. We will properly rid of your existence by the methods of the Sanctum."

Then the man's ship was attacked. Bullets came down on them from above. The l'Cie looked up and saw Snow on a motorcycle with a blue robbed woman behind him. The bike he used created icy roads and the woman attacked with her gun.

Lighting and Jake were amazed by how the soldiers focused on them. Hope only focus was on Snow. Snow and the woman stop next to the Lighting and her group. "It's been a while." Snow said. He got off his bike and it transformed back into Stiria and Nix, the Shiva Sisters. "Thanks for the help ladies." They waved and kissed good-bye at Snow and disappeared.

"Snow…" Lightning began.

"The happy reunion will have to wait." The woman in the blue robes said. "Right now, we have to get out of here."

"Come on Fang," Snow complained, "it's been a while since I have seen sis."

"I'm not your sister." Lightning quickly pointed out.

"Either way, I'm going to need your help." Fang takes Lightning and she quickly grabs Jakes paw.

"Take care of Hope, Snow." Lightning ordered. She was given a shocked look by Hope.

"Don't worry, I got this." Snow made thumbs up at her.

"Why did you bring the cat? Is he your pet?" Fang asked. Jake glared at her for being called a pet.

"No," Lightning said, "I don't want him to get in Hope's way."

"You mean, Hope's big attempt to…" Lightning quickly covered his muzzle with both her hands. Fang just looked really confused at Lightning's behavior.

"Whatever, I don't want to know what that boy is up to." Fang then led the group into the alley ways of Palompolum.

Jake and Lightning followed behind. "Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Hope alone with Snow? He has the knife and could kill him at anytime." Jake whispered.

"I have faith in Hope." Lightning whispered back. "I'm sure Snow will find out what he is up to and explain himself. There has to be a misunderstanding."

"By the way," Fang turns back to her new partners. "Does this belong to any of you?" She held out a large sized glovatrix.

"That's Chan…um I mean, T-Bone's glovatrix." Jake took the weapon from Fang. "Where did you find it?"

"We found it at Lake Bresha. It was a little damaged and I figured I would hold on to it until I found the owner." Fang answered. "But since you know the owner, I will let you hold on to it."

Jake nodded and inspected the worn out glovatrix. It has a couple dings, but Jake could fix it quickly with the proper tools. All he needs now is his glovatrix from the silver haired man.

"What's your name cat?" Fang asked.

"My name's Razor." Lightning scoffed as Jake held out his paw to shake her hand. Fang laughed at the name. Jake was starting to think that Lightning might have been right about his and Chance's SWAT Kat names.

"That's a strange name, but I like it." Fang patted 'Razor' on the back. Lightning was surprised that Fang didn't think his name was ridiculous. Jake gave Lightning a wide smirk.

"Enough of this," Lightning headed ahead, "PSICOM will find us if we keep standing here."

"Aren't you up tight lass?" Fang said teasingly. "Alright, let's move Light and Razor."

The alley ways were filled with soldiers. With their new ally, Fang, they easily dispatched the group of soldiers one by one. Fang was a graceful yet ruthless fighter with her spear. Not only was she a great at fighting, she could also take a hit for the team.

Fang led the group to a place where there weren't so many soldiers. Beeping sounds started to come from her robes. She pulls out the thin device and opens it. "Hello, Snow? It's for you…" Fang hands the phone to Lighting.

"Hey…"

"I want to let you know that the kid and I are okay. He's tough and a great help. He said to meet up at his father's home so I'll wait for you there. It's located at the top of the hill. He says you can't miss it. I'll see ya…"

"Snow wait…I have to tell you something…"

"What ever it is, you can tell me later."

"Snow it's about Hope." There was no response. The phone started to make static noises. Fang took the thin phone.

"They are blocking our form of communication. That's a nice touch." Fang said jokingly. "Well let's get moving."

Again, the group faced another hoard of PSICOM soldiers. This time they are in large groups and were being a challenge. The soldiers have called upon domesticated weapons. "Whoa," Jake jumps out of the way before the huge behemoth could crush him. "This is new.

This new creation stood on its hind legs. It carried a large blade on its right hand and towered over the l'Cie. Lighting and Fang lunge for the first attack. The behemoth took the hit as if they were just mere scratches. Then it sweeps its blade hitting all three l'Cie.

"This is one strong monster." Jake said as he staggers to get up.

"Yeah," Fang quickly gets into position, "We can't weaken it since it's immune to all negative effects."

A green glow surrounds Lighting. "I'll back you all up while you guys fight."

A blue glow surrounds Jake. Fang lands in a couple strikes while Jake landed random spells. Lightning tried her best to keep the party healed one partner at a time. Fang had enough and she glows bright yellow. She used her spear as a form of shield to stop the unnatural beasts sweep. "Go, attack him!"

Lightning glowed red for a moment and goes in for the attack. She lands graceful slashes and Jake keeps up with his magic attacks. Lighting was punched back by the behemoth's free arm. "Light," Jake runs towards her to help her up.

"Don't stop attacking Razor!" Fang ordered. Her hold on the behemoth's blade is beginning to falter. She doesn't know how much longer she can hold it. Just then, the behemoth was pushed back by an eidolon.

Fang turned back to her partners and Lightning was kneeling and holding on to her chest. Then she turns to face the behemoth who is brawling with the eidolon Odin. "If you could do that, why didn't you at the start?"

"Because I wanted to wait until it is weakened." Lightning answered. She gets up and goes to help her eidolon fight the manufactured weapon. Fang and Jake watch as the two take advantage of the behemoth's struggle. Lighting then takes Odin's blades and attacks. She slashes the behemoth with full force and grace. With one final move, Lighting jumps in front of the behemoth and spins while at the same time slashing her enemy. A surge of energy bursts out of the monster and rose petals disperse from the energy. She landed on the ground and the petals fell around her. Lighting has defeated the monster and she returns Odin's blade as he readies to disappear.

"That was amazing!" Jake runs towards Lightning. Then the tom sees that she was out of it.

"We can rest down there." Fang points to the stairs that led down. It was a good spot. Nobody could see them. Lighting stood and breathed in and out. She looks at Fang and then to the strange blue brand on her left shoulder.

"What's up with your brand?" Lighting asked.

"Yeah, I've been wondering that too." Jake said.

Fang sat down on the ledge of a wall. "It's a long story…"

* * *

><p>"So," Jake began, "you and Vanille woke up from your eternal crystal sleep and were given a new focus." Jake started to pace around. "But you lost your memory and you can't remember how you became a crystal. You and Vanille were being chased by PSICOM soldiers and you help Vanille escape by taking the soldiers attention all on you. Now your brand is blue because it is temporally stopping your brand from continuing the count down to becoming a Cieth. Am I getting all the details right?"<p>

"If you dumb it down like that, then you're right Razor." Fang smiled. "Now, I have to find Vanille before it's too late. I wouldn't live with myself if she becomes a Cieth. It's pretty much our fault all of this ever happened."

Lighting walks in front of Fang. She raised her hand and slaps Fang across her face. Jake gasps at the sound. "Feel better now?" Fang asked as she soothed her cheek.

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Light…" Jake sighed.

"Well tell that to my face." Fang stood up and then began to head to the stairs leading back up. The sun is starting to set. They need to make it to Hope's house before it gets even darker.

More PSICOM soldiers roamed the paths. This path was fairly short and made it to the bridge. They took a short rest after fighting a ruthless group of soldiers with another one of those behemoths. Fang was trying to use the phone again to contact Snow or Cid or anyone nearby. "Communications are still down. We are just going to have to keep going."

Soon the three went inside a building. There were little soldiers and they could sneak by most of them. There was a loud crashing sound up ahead. The three give each other a worried look. They sprint ahead to the source of the crash.


	12. Eleven: The Revenge

Chapter 11: The Revenge

Snow hung up when static took over the voice on the other end. He took a quick glance at the young boy. Hope kept a good slight glare at him. "Alright, tell me where we should go."

"We can just take this road and we'll be there in a couple hours." Hope said as he points to the road. It was covered by residential people. "We will blend in with the others and hide from PSICOM."

"Nice plan." Snow pats the boy on the back and jumps down to the main road. Hope climbed down by using the pole near by. Hope's plan was working like a charm. Nobody suspected them as the run away l'Cie.

Hope listened in to the people's conversations as they walked by. It was mostly about the new Purge that might happen. Other's talked about the l'Cie in town. Hope bumps into Snow when he suddenly stops. "What…"

Snow heard a faint humming sound. There were PSICOM Dragoons coming in their direction. He spotted a lone PSICOM soldier and knocks him out. Snow takes the gun and fires it towards the sky. "I am a Pulse l'Cie. I am here to wipe every one of you out of existence!"

Hope looked at Snow in disbelief. All of the people ran away from them. "What are you doing?"

"Clearing the crowd." Snow answered. "They don't care how they dispatch their targets. If I hadn't seen them approaching, innocent people would have been killed."

The PSICOM Dragoons hover near the two fugitives. Snow gets into position and Hope pulls out his boomerang. The Dragoons fire their riffles. Snow dodges their fire and lands in a powerful blow. Hope launches a fire spell that burns both Dragoons. As the soldiers try to snuff out the fire around them, Snow quickly makes good work dispatching them.

"We have to get out of here." Snow ordered. "There are soldiers heading this way." Both Snow and Hope sprint away from the coming soldiers. Hope worked hard trying to keep up with Snow. He wasn't used to this much running in such a short time.

Snow stops Hope. Their path was blocked by pedestrians armed with everyday objects. They were shouting at the l'Cie that they are monsters and Pulse scum. Hope backs away from the crowd of armed civilians. He trips on a pole and a little girl yelps when Hope sees her. Hope gets up and tries to help the little girl, but she throws her plush toy at him. The little girl then runs towards the crowd and to her mother.

The people got closer. Snow looks up and saw something that will stop them from advancing. He launches a spell at the structure and breaks its hold. The huge structure falls and blocks the people. The people were faltering back. They were shocked by the demonstration of the l'Cie's power. Hope picks up the plush toy and sets it on the structure. "I'm sorry." Hope said to the crowd.

More Dragoons were starting to fly towards them. Snow finds a discarded jetpack, holds on to Hope and uses the jetpack to go on the roof. He let go once he was sure he was in the clear. "You alright kid?"

Hope is on his knees and hands trying to catch his breath from the sudden flight. Snow scans the up ahead. He spotted a sign that read about the comfort and safety of the homes on the hill. He wonders if Serah would like a home like that when they finally get married after she wakes up. But first he needed to focus on this. He needs to get Hope to his father's home so they could form a plan.

Hope gets up and gives nods that he is ready. Snow leads through the maze like rooftops of the town. Dragoons scan and search the rooftops and had to fight their way across. There were a lot of PSICOM weapons that roamed the around the rooftops and attacked them on sight. Hope easily dispatched them with his thunder spells.

Soon the two were in the clear. There were no soldiers in sight. That didn't last very long when another of PSICOM's special war weapons land in their way. "Oh great, now they mean business." Snow said.

Snow and Hope take their stance. Hope is surrounded in a purple light and begins to cast Protect and Shell on himself and Snow. Snow momentarily glows yellow and acted as a distraction. Snow made the war machine follow him and took all the weapons attacks.

"Snow!" Hope glowed green and heals Snow quickly. Snow glowed red and began to punch the weapon. Hope came back to attacking as a Ravager. The weapon didn't like Hope's thunder attacks.

"Look out!" Snow pushed Hope out of the way and took the damage from the weapons energy blaster.

'You idiot.' Hope said in his mind and started to heal Snow again. This was taking forever. At this rate, they will get too tired and end up killed. "Snow, you attack and I switch between Ravager and Medic!" Snow nods and goes in for another attack.

The plan is slowly working. The weapon is beginning to falter. When the weapon finally had enough, it hovered and flew away. "That's right; we were too much for ya!" Snow cheered in a successful battle.

Hope sighed and puts his boomerang away. "Are you alright, you want something to drink?" Snow heads towards the vending machines. Hope shook his head. "Okay, more for me." He puts the money in and buys his drink. He gulps it down and releases a breath to show his satisfaction of the taste.

Now the two were alone. There seemed to be nothing that could interrupt him now. Hope took his time before saying anything. "You know, after I get you home, you can thank your hero later." Hope cringes at the thought of thanking him. He had enough of Snow. It was time for his attempt.

"You call yourself a hero." Hope began. "Would you still call yourself a hero when you realize you can't save everyone?" Snow quickly turns to face Hope's distorted gaze. "Well," Hope yelled.

Snow staggers to answer. He has never thought about that. Would he still be called a hero if he doesn't save everyone? "Well, would you?" Hope yelled again.

"I don't know."

"That's right. You don't know. Because you can't save everyone. Just like you couldn't save my mom."

"What are you…," Once Snow got a good look at Hope, he remembered what the woman at the Purge asked him to do. She asked him to take Hope home. "…you're the kid…"

"It's because of you; I will never see her again." Hope pulled out the knife Lightning lent him. Hope walked closer to Snow. Snow staggers back and hits the railing. Then out of nowhere, a giant explosion throws Snow back and barely grabs on to the ledge. He looks down and it was a really long drop.

Hope stood at the edge and watches Snow hang on for his life. Hope kneels down and holds the knife in both hands. Just as he was about to stab his target, another explosion hits and Hope was thrown off the ledge. Snow quickly makes for Hope and falls with Hope. Snow turned his body to put Hope on top. He hits the ground hard on his back. For a second, he was going to let himself die. Then he remembered the promise he made to Hope's mother. Snow wouldn't let himself die yet.

* * *

><p>Hope wakes up. It seems the explosion whiplashed him unconscious, but for how long. He pulls back a bit once he realized that he was being piggybacked by Snow. "Hey," Snow said. His tone was clearly weakened from the fall. "How ya holding up?"<p>

Hope didn't say anything. Snow just sighed and continued walking. Hope pulled out the knife again and unsheathed it. "Why?"

"I made a promise. And I'm going to make sure I take you home. Your mother asked me to…before she died."

Hope gasps at his answer. Guilt runs through him. He sheaths the blade back into place and puts it away. Snow was beginning to stagger in his steps. "Let's take a break." Snow put Hope down. He then leans on a pillar. "This is taking a while, huh?" The sun was starting to set.

Then the two heard the sounds of the familiar engines of a weapon they finished facing a while ago. "Not know." Snow fell to his knees. Hope runs to his side. The weapon lands and locks on the two l'Cie. Hope glares at the weapon and pulls out his boomerang again.

"Alright," Hope said, "I'll handle this."

The weapon takes aim on Hope. Hope casts several thunder spells on the weapon and it didn't seem to be doing anything. The weapon fired several blasts from its mini-cannon on its back towards the boy. The energy blast severely hurt the boy and he falls to his knees. He shined green and heals himself; then he shined blue to cast more thunder attacks.

Hope sees the weapon jump into the air and fired an orange laser at Hope. Hope quickly evades and the attack heads for Snow. With the little energy Snow has, he lazily moved out of range. The weapon lands hard on the ground. Hope didn't know what to do now. His thunder spell was doing little work and the weapon seemed to be more prepared to fight him.

Just then, a missile hits the main body of the weapon. Hope turns to see Jake with the glove Chance had when he met him. Lightning and Fang quickly run to Hope's aide. "Are you okay?" Lightning asked. Hope nods a bit. Jake joins them after realizing he used up the last missile.

"So much for the glovatrix." Jake sighed and put it away. As much as he got used to using his powers, he missed using the weapon.

"Don't worry Razor." Fang said. "I'm sure you'll use it again later." She took her stance as the weapon regained its stance. The missile clearly did a lot of damage. It tried to fly away again but the missile must have messed up its flight system.

Lightning charges with Fang to strike the exposed area of the weapons body while Hope and Jake cast spells at the open wound. The weapon retaliates by using its long legs to hit the charging l'Cie. Lightning swiftly eludes the attack and shoots at the open area. Fang dodges and takes her spear apart to jab the same area. Jake and Hope time their attacks so that they don't accidentally hit their other partners.

The weapon didn't have a chance this time. It was sparking out of control. Lightning and Fang retreat to Hope and Jake. The weapon explodes and the smoke reached the sky instantly. Hope puts his boomerang away and runs towards Snow.

"How are you holding up?" Hope asked. Lightning gasped when she heard the concern in his voice.

"Not so good." Snow managed a small weak laugh.

"Save your breath." Fang crossed her arms at the sight of Snow. "You'll be just fine when we find a place for you to rest."

"That should be my house." Hope reminded. "We should be safe there."

"How far is your house kid?" Jake asked. He really wanted to fix up the glovatrix before handing it back to Chance.

"Not very far." Hope gets up and points to a set of stairs leading up. "If we go through those stairs and walk another mile, we should make it before it gets any darker."

"Alright." Lightning kneels down to Snow and put on of his arms over her. "Jake, help me with him." Jake didn't have to be asked twice. Fang and Hope walk ahead to check for any more soldiers and the coast was clear. Nobody was around. Not even the pedestrian of the town.


	13. Twelve: PSICOM Assault Part One

Chapter 12: PSICOM Assault at the Estheim Home

**Okay, this did take a while to post up. That's because I was more focused on my other story Complications. So, Jake's side of this story continues. Chance's side continues after this chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Jake sits on a bar stool as he tinkers with fixing the glovatrix with the tools Hope's father had lent him. They weren't like the tools he was used to in his world but it slowly brought the weapon back to normal. Fang watches him from behind with attentive curiosity.<p>

"What is this doohickey made for?"

"It's designed for just about any situation you could think of." Jake explains, "Like if you need to wrap or attack the enemy or just plain need it for a tool."

"So it's a weapon AND a tool?"

"Yeah, we could use the saw to cut through fences or turn it into a shield like this…" Jake gets up from his seat and starts to demonstrate the shield feature, but it got stuck. "…well, maybe if I worked on it a little more, I could show you." Fang nods. Somehow she finds Razor more interesting then the others. Maybe it's because Razor is from a different world.

"While you work on that, I'll go over here." Fang walks towards the living room. She takes in the luxurious dwelling of plush sofas and recliners, fancy lighting, expensive tables and shelves with books and pictures of the family. Fang looks at a portrait of Hope with his father, Bartholomew, and his mother, Nora. The mother has a serine smile while the males look bored. Hope seemed the most distant, even though he loves his mother more then his father.

She then turns to the expensive looking flat screen TV. She turns it on and the news recapped of the events of Palumpolum. "_The attack of the Pulse l'Cie on Palumpolum, was a struggle for the Sanctum as they try to contain the fugitive l'Cies. As you can see from the images, these Pulse l'Cies are considered dangerous and still on the loose. PSICOM are still searching for their whereabouts…_" Fang scoffs and turns off the screen.

"I don't think we'll last if they find us here."

* * *

><p>Lightning watched Snow as he sleeps. He was badly injured and he needed to be bandaged around his stomach and his back. She doesn't know why she is feeling sympathy for him. Snow annoyed her and she hated him. But then why is she feeling sorry for him. Why does she feel like she wants him to get up?<p>

Snow weakly grunts when he woke up. He opens his eyes to only see a blurred beige surrounding. His vision clears up and sees Lightning looking at him. "Hey sis,"

"I'm not your sister." Lightning says, but this time, it wasn't anger. It was more like she resents saying it. "How are you feeling?"

"Better I suppose."

"You suppose?"

Snow gives off a weak chuckle. He tries to sit up but the pain from his fall jolts him back to lie down. "You need to rest. Hope's father said he wants to talk to you, but that's when you are feeling better." Lightning reassures him.

"Tell me something…" Lightning looks at Snow with stunned eyes, "…why did you give Hope that knife?"

She hesitates to answer. Instead she, "Why the sudden question?"

"Because Hope tried to kill me with your knife. Did you know he had it?"

"Yeah," Lightning says almost as a whisper. Snow looks at her as if he was asking why. "I lent it to him incase he needed to use it. For his revenge. It seems he did try, but failed. He then later returned the knife saying he didn't need it anymore." Lightning gave him her most apologetic look she could muster.

"Don't be sad." Snow says hoping to cheer her up. "We wouldn't want Serah to see you like this when she wakes up." Lightning looks over to Snow with a half-hearted smile. "By the way…"

"Hmm…"

"Why do you like to be called 'Lightning' anyways?"

Lightning weakly laughs; after everything that happened, Lightning laughs for the first time. "I'll let Serah tell you that when she wakes up." Snow gives her a pout before he drifts back to sleep.

* * *

><p>Jake wipes the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve after he was done putting in the finishing touches. The glovatrix is finally fixed and, as much as he is bugging about the paint job it really needed, operational. "That looks better then what it looked like before." Fang says as she returns from who knows where.<p>

"Yeah, me too." Jake puts the weapon on the counter and stretches after sitting for about two hours. "Have you heard anything from Light?" Jake asks.

"No," Fang sighs, "and I haven't seen Hope around either."

"Maybe he's in his room." Jake says. "After everything that has happened and what he had to say to his father, I wouldn't blame him for wanting to be alone." Jake winces at the way he says it so casually.

Fang looks at the way the lean tom shrugs his shoulders after what he said. "What happened with the lad?" She asks.

Jake didn't want to tell her, not without Hope's permission anyways. It wasn't his place to tell her the truth. "Maybe we should go see Hope, he should tell you instead." Fang raises an eyebrow at him and nods.

"Alright, lead the way Razor." Fang then pushes the tom towards Hope's room. She lets go of him and Jake is a few inches from the door. He hesitates to knock. He looks back at Fang and she motions her head as if she was pressing him on. So Jake breaths in and then out. Just as he was about to knock, the door is swung open.

Hope is surprised to see both Fang and Jake at his door. Jake still has a paw hovering as if he was about to knock. "Hey," Jake quickly puts his paw back to his side, "how are you feeling?" Then the nagging feeling of asking a dumb question sets in.

"Okay." Hope says. "I just wanted to check up on Snow. It's been two hours." Jake moves out of the way to let the young teen pass by until Fang stops him by the shoulder.

"Alright," She begins, "what's up between you and Snow?"

Jake couldn't believe that Fang just came out and asked him. "Fang, you didn't have to be so blunt."

"It's okay Jake." Hope says reassuring the tom with a hand, "You see I blamed Snow for my mother's death. After I watched my mother fall, Snow had on this happy-go-lucky attitude and it really bugged me. Like he didn't care that he just lost a life. And when I confronted him on it, Snow realized and accepted the idea that he couldn't save everyone. But I still felt like he deserved to die. So I tried to kill him on the spot before PSICOM got in the way."

Both Jake and Fang look at the boy with sympathetic eyes. Jake had a thought, "Then why didn't you kill him when you still had the knife and he was weakened from rescuing you from a huge fall?"

"Because Snow made a promise to my mother." Hope says. His eyes started to get puffy. "Snow said that she told him to bring me home. Where I can be safe." Then he looks at his brand. The brand has gotten at least two more marks added to it. "But as long as we are Pulse l'Cie, we are never safe."

"Not on Cocoon anyways." Fang says.

The three hear a door open and out came Lightning. She walks up to Hope and says, "It's time to talk with your dad. Snow is getting changed and is ready to talk with him." Hope nods at the request.

"I'll go get him."

* * *

><p>Fang is leaning against the wall. Jake and Lightning sit on the sofa besides Snow. Hope sits across from Jake and Lightning. Snow looks towards the ground as he is being stared at by the husband of the mother he couldn't save. "Your wife's life was my responsibility. I'm sorry I couldn't save her." He then kneels to his hands and knees and bows. Bartholomew sees what Snow is doing.<p>

"There is no need to apologize." He says. Snow quickly looks up as he stands. "Nora was a strong woman and will forever be missed. But you made a promise to her and you fulfilled it, and with that, I thank you."

Everyone relaxes a bit knowing that Hope's father isn't holding a grudge on him, especially Snow. "Now, what can I do to help you?" Everyone gasps at the question Bartholomew asked.

"You don't have to do this Dad?" Hope begins.

"Nonsense, you're my son and I want to help." Hope starts to see that his father did care for him. His own father would risk his life helping fugitive Pulse l'Cie. Then the lights were cut off. Everyone stops and listens for anything only to be ambushed by PSICOM.

"Run!' Lightning orders Bartholomew and is helped by Snow. "Hope, go with your father."

"No," Hope said taking out his boomerang, "I'm going to help."

"Snow can protect Bartholomew." Jake puts in.

"It looks like you're out numbered in votes." Fang said already in position to attack. Lightning sighs and pulls out her sword as she walks a couple steps towards the soldiers.

"Right, let's go!" Lighting orders and nobody falters to strike. Hope puts some distance between him and the soldiers by casting some fire and blizzard spells with Jake. Fang makes quick work of taking out a couple soldiers. She turns to see a soldier already positioned to fire.

"Out of the way!" Her warning came a little late. The PSICOM bombardier fires his mini-bazooka towards the small group. Jake quickly reacts and fires a home-made missile from Chance's glovatrix. It was a little hard to aim, but he managed to blow up the rocket before it got any closer.

"Thanks Jake." Lightning says as she regains her focus on the bombardier. Hope and Jake cast thunder to make the soldier stop him from loading another rocket. Lightning and Fang ran towards him and take care of him.

The house is completely destroyed and a mess. Lightning and the others lean on the wall by the window they came from and tried to stay out of the warships lights. Just as Lightning was about to check how many soldiers there were, Snow gets in the way and removes his coat. "What are you doing?"

"Trust me." Snow said. He then puts the coat out into the enemies view and they quickly shoot it. Snow held out his arm for a good minute that felt like five. After the enemy had finished using their ammo, Snow yells out, "Let me show you how a Pulse l'Cie looks like!"

He steps out into view with arms raised and his bandages showing. He slowly walks to the army of PSICOM soldiers. "I am a Pulse l'Cie! I am a citizen of Cocoon! I am one you! Does it not bother you that you are killing your own people?"

The soldiers look at him and start to debate among their beliefs. They even falter back as Snow continues to walk towards them. "Yes." A voice called out. "You are a citizen of Cocoon, but you tainted by Pulse."

Jake peeks out the edge of the window and his eyes land on the silver haired man; still wearing his glovatrix. "It pains me to watch out own kin killed by our hands. But orders are orders. We will eliminate all Pulse l'Cie that danger our home. Citizen of Cocoon or not."

Snow glares at the man. Then they were all consumed in a smoke-screen. Snow falls to the ground as he hears gun fire. The silver haired man gets out of the smoke and is now in the open. Someone fires at him and falls on his back.

"Jake, get back here!" Lightning tried to stop the tom from getting in the cross fire but he had to get his glove back. He knocks out the soldiers dragging their commander. He quickly removes the glovatrix and returns to Snow's side to help him back.

A light landed on the two as the ship hovers near them. Lightning gasps and turns to Hope, "Tie up your father." Then she turns to Bartholomew. "Tell them we forced you to take us in."

"I won't do such…"

"Do as she says!" Hope gave his father a pleading look. Bartholomew sees the determination in his son's eyes and nods.

"What do we do now?" Snow asked chuckling a bit.

"There is only one thing we can do, fight back."

"Not on your own you're not." Lightning, Fang and Hope stand in front of the two l'Cie. "Jake, take Snow inside." With a nod, Jake struggled to carry the big guy but manages to get him to his feet.

Snow lands beside the tied up father. "Help them; we'll be okay from here." As much as Jake wanted to object, he ran out. Jake puts on his glovatrix and fires a mini-match head missile. It lands in one of the turret and causes it to burst.

"Razor, what kind of spell was that?" Fang asked looking at the lean tom.

"Not magic, that was the power of my invention."

"Do you have more of those missiles?" Lightning asks while casting thunder and fire spells at the other turret.

"Plenty." Jake raises his glove at the cannons. "Mini-match head missiles deploy!" Two missiles land and destroy the cannons. "Bingo!"

"That just leaves the other turret!" Fang says. She casts a couple of Ruin spells along with Lightning and Hopes thunder and fire. Jake was about to fire another missile when the turret fires in front of him, causing Jake and the glovatrix to hit the wall.

"Jake!" Hope changed to Medic and healed the lean tom of his injuries. Jake thanks the boy and checks his weapon. It sparked a bit, but Jake could tell it could still fire.

"Alright you big floating piece of junk, eat match head missile!" The turret explodes and the ship started to loose altitude. With all the explosions it took from its own arsenal, the ship began to tilt and smoke.

As the ship they destroyed got out of the way, another one was just behind it. "There is just no end to them!" Fang clenched her teeth and got ready to keep fighting. Everyone did as well until the ship was hit by a laser. They all turn to see a ship that looks like the one that got destroyed send a small cruiser down towards them.

"Need a lift." A man in a PSICOM uniform came out and waved towards them.

"Running a little late I see." Fang said casually. The man just shrugged. "Come on, let's get on and we'll be out of here scot-free."

Jake and Hope run back for Snow. Hope gave his father one last glance before leaving. "Wait," The boy stopped at his father's call. "Don't give up. Move forward for me and your mother."

"Come on, let's go!" Lightning called out. Hope didn't get to say good-bye, but he knew his father understood. Snow could walk a bit, but his adrenaline rush faded and did need the help. Jake and Hope made it into the cruiser with Snow before another airship could come and attack them again.

The cruiser lifted and headed back to their ship. "I hope my father will be alright." Hope said. His tone was full of worry.

"Whatever happens, I'm sure your father wouldn't blame you." Lightning reassures Hope. Hope looks towards the floor and nods.

Jake sits quietly at the edge of the cruiser while looking out through one of the thin windows. It's been a long time since he felt the feel of lift off. But this time, he is feeling it alone. _Chance, where are you? Please be alright._

* * *

><p><strong>Please Review. JakeRazor has his glovatrix back! XD Aside: Fang is the only one who will call Jake Razor. Later on, she will call Chance T-Bone.**


	14. Thirteen: PSICOM Assault Part Two

Chapter 13: L'Cie fun in Nautilus; PSICOM Assault

**Time for some fun! Especially to a certain tom. hehehe**

* * *

><p>He couldn't believe his eyes. The place was colorful and full of people and happy spirited goers. The tabby quickly turns to Sazh giving him a questionable look. Sazh shrugged and he turned to Vanille, who was looking a little pale.<p>

"Seasick?" Sazh asked the girl and responded shaking her head.

"Nope, I'm fine."

"Okay then." She and Sazh began got walk on, until the tabby cut in front of them.

"Whoa, why are we here?" Chance glared at Sazh and wanted an explanation. Sazh sighed and pushed Chance towards the crowd. "Hey…wait…what the…"

They walked on and Chance couldn't help but feel like he was the center of attention. His mask helped hide his facial features, but his ears were another issue. Also, people wondered what he was doing wearing a flight suit. He was more out of place than Sazh and Vanille together.

"There are so many people." Vanille awed at the crowd of people. The three wondered what they were all huddling around for. Chance saw some other people heading around. He nudged Vanille and made her move that direction and notifying Sazh to go too. On their way, they were greeted by the park staff.

"Hello and welcome to Nautilus." "Please enjoy your stay in Nautilus, the capital of entertainment."

The route was taking a little longer than Chance thought. They managed to pass some kids laughing and enjoying their stay at the concession stands. Chance eyed the stands and saw toys, clothing and, amazingly, a hat just his size. It was black with a white front that had a picture of a tan bear like creature with a big red nose, small purple wings, and a red bobble from an antenna coming out of its head. He stopped to look at it and decided it was perfect.

"How much for the hat?" The tabby said way to excited to buy something from another world. Vanille walked up from behind and curiously watched his attitude. Just a while ago, he was serious and now, he is cheerful and kind-spirited.

"50 gil." Chance gave the man on the other side a strange look.

"I got it." Vanille pulled out some coins and the man takes it then handed Chance the hat.

"Thanks, this should help a lot." The tabby removed his mask and put on the hat backwards feeling better wearing it. Vanille giggled at how strange that looked. All that's left is for Chance to ditch the flight suit and gear. Since he can use the powers of a l'Cie, he hardly needed to use his gear.

Sazh called out for them and they hurried out to him. When they reached him, Sazh was looking around. "Not a lot of security here." Chance and Vanille look around too and noticed that Sazh was right. "For those people, the l'Cie panic must still seem like a world away." Vanille gasps when she sees something that caught her attention on the screen. "Oh, hey, it looks like they're putting Eidolons on parade. It's starting soon."

"Like the one I can summon?" Chance says looking at the back of his right hand.

"Yeah," Sazh said. "What do you say? Let's go check it out."

"Sure!" Vanille said excitedly pumping a fist in the air like Chance. She winks at the tabby and skipped on. She stops when the screen changed to some urgent news.

"_We interrupt this program to bring you a breaking news update."_ Chance gasps when He saw Lightning and Hope walk out followed by Jake. _"The l'Cie who surfaced in Palumpolum and attacked the city's citizens are still on the run from authorities. Sanctum soldiers are tracking their location but have yet to engage the fugitives. The presence of hostages has been confirmed."_

It was Vanille turn to gasp when she saw the woman in blue robes.

"What's wrong?" Sazh asked at the look of dread in her face.

"It's her."

"Yup, looks like the army finally found em." Vanille looks away from the screen and noticed that Sazh was talking about the other l'Cie.

"Hostages? They should just blow em away with the l'Cie." The three turn to a man who was also watching.

"They're all infected by Pulse, or something, by now anyways." A woman says from behind them. Chance tried to hold in his anger. When he heard that hostages were confirmed, he couldn't believe that Jake would do something like that. He wouldn't, Jake would never threaten another kat, let alone, these innocent people.

Sazh saw how down both Vanille and Chance got. "The parade is about to start. Come on, let's go." Sazh led Vanille away from the screen. Chance stood looking at the screen for a little while and watched what little shots they caught of Jake fighting back PSICOM soldiers then followed behind the two.

One their way to the parade, people talked about the news. "I can't believe how fast the world is going to hell." "What's the Sanctum going to do about this?" "Do you think it's safe to say that we are safe here?"

Vanille felt even worse and hid her face from the crowd. Chance just ignored the comments as best as he could. He didn't realize that he was a danger to all these people.

"I'm sure everyone is fine, right?" Vanille asked still looking towards the ground; Sazh sighed and responded with and hesitating yes. Vanille stopped and Chance accidentally bumped into her arm a bit.

"Vanille?"

"Hey, loosen up!" Sazh said cheerfully. "Gotta make the most of this!" He pumped a fist in the air. "Right?" Vanille smiled back and nodded. She followed him and Chance to the entrance of the parade.

There was a large sculpture made completely out of lights. It was bluish green with some bright purple sights. It resembled a clock as the handle spun each number slot and rotated at the same time. Chance was amazed by it all. Nothing like this ever happened in his world. Here, they were more advanced then they were.

"The show is starting. Look." Sazh points to the show. Purple streams of light burst from the stage and sparkles of disks fall around the audience. Vanille grabs on and it shined brightly. A long eared blue creature pops out and greeted them.

"It's party time, little lady."

Vanille giggles at it and watched it fly away. More of the same creatures gather around in one place. Then they disperse to reveal a harpist with wings on her head and blue nymphs holding on to scarf like robes dancing on what seemed to be water. The water turned red and boiled revealing more of the dancing nymphs only these were of a different hue. The water turned to lava and out bursts a feral beast with long horns and roared loudly as a man rode the fire beast. Chance felt uncomfortable and had his guard up, but Sazh made him ease up when he told him it's only for show. "With Pulse born spite and savage might I will destroy Cocoon!" The man waved a staff and the beast rose and fired a blast of its flames from its maw.

"Here comes the attack from Pulse." Sazh said informing Chance and Vanille.

The red nymphs spawned from the lava dance an attack that made the blue nymphs disappear as the fire beast continued to breathe fire. The lights from the fallen blue nymphs gather together above the savage monster. Winds form and a hurricane blast flows around. Another's man voice came to the scene. "With trusty blade and fal'Cie aid I will defend Cocoon!" The winds clear and reveal the man in the palm of a large bearded spirit. The spirit fired electricity from its staff and the feral beast avoids it. The feral beast goes for an attack and the spirit defends.

"To battle!" The man cried out again as he jumped from the spirits palm. The other man on the beast lunged as well and defends off his nemesis's attacks.

"You dare oppose me?" Their battle got furious and the crowd goes insane with excitement. The evil man, that rode the beast, gathers all his power. "I will fulfill my Focus!" The man from the spirit was blown away and sees the power flow gather into a giant red orb. The orb bursts and revealed yet another monster.

Vanille's eyes widen and gasp its name. "Ragnarok!"

The man gathers his wind powers and goes for a final strike. "Fal'Cie grant me strength!" He flew towards Ragnarok and the new foe fired blast after blast of fire that seemed like rockets to Chance. All of this was strange, yet exciting. Who would have guessed this is a part of their history. Both men clash and a blast of light fills the place. Nobody could see, but they could here Ragnarok scream with pain. The light faded. Everything was gone. The crowd cheered as they enjoyed the show. Vanille looked around like she has seen all of this before.

"Oh man." Sazh said cheering along.

"Whoa, I'm never going to doubt you again Sazh!" Chance said giving him a friendly shove.

The left the area and are now standing on what to do next. Sazh looks at Vanille, who still doesn't seem to be having fun. Chance on the other hand, felt like he was a kitten again. Yet, he still has his mind on the others.

* * *

><p>"Where to next, little lady?" Sazh asked in such a strange tone. Vanille looked up from the bench she was sitting on.<p>

"I'll let you decide." In her mind, she kept telling herself to keep on smiling. She couldn't help but notice Chance giving her a strange look. Maybe he could sense her fearing the inevitable.

Sazh thought for a moment and it came to him. "I know. A Nautilus Park date-with Sazh." Chance gave the man a weird look.

"_A date…with Vanille."_ Chance thought.

Vanille kept a soft smile. "Yeah, but should we really be playing around?"

Sazh looked away a little annoyed. "Forget about that heavy stuff for a while and maybe this" Sazh pointed to the tattoo on his chest, "will just fade away." Vanille smiled wider and nodded.

"Okay!" She got up and Chance was the only one who was finding this a bit too weird.

"What are we going to do?" Sazh didn't answer and kept on walking. Chance cocked his head in curiosity.

After a while, Vanille finally asked a question. "What's in Nautilus Park anyway?" Sazh smiled and faced both his friends.

"It's a huge amusement park, built by the Sanctum." He smirked. "Bet they never expected l'Cie visitors."

"So, is this place special?"

"I promised Dajh I was going to bring him some day. Hope I can at least tell him about it." Sazh sounded unhappy. Chance and Vanille stare at him for a while.

"You'll get the chance."

"Maybe. I do know where they are keeping him."

"Can I come with you?" Vanille asked too quickly. Sazh turned to her and smiled.

"Sure, more the marrier. You better come too Chance." The tabby looked at him strangely and then just nodded. Sazh then returned his attention on Vanille. "What about you? You got someone special out there?"

Vanille gave her best innocent look. "Special? Nope."

"Really?" Chance raised an eyebrow at her. "Now that is kinda sad."

"Yeah." Vanille sighed and looked disappointed; Chance acted fast to make up for what he said.

"Hey, I'm kidding. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Well, I'm just fine, thank you." Vanille gave the tabby a look that seemed angry and relieved.

Sazh took them to an orb like transporter. When it opened, Chance felt uneasy trying to go inside. Around the orb bottom surface was a pond and looked very deep. "Hurry up Chance!" Vanille called out. The tabby smiled nervously and got in anyways. The doors closed quick and dropped like a bomb. The ride was fast and the tabby kept his eyes shut the entire time. When it stopped moments later, he was surprised at how much of a kitten he was really acting.

The ride might have been weird to Chance, but this new place hit his nose hard. It reeked of something awful, almost like a farm. "What is that?" Chance complained.

"Oh, I thought I smelled something. That's a chocobo, isn't it?"

"A choco-what?" The tabby asked cocking his head a bit.

"It'd be better if we showed you." Sazh said walking on.

Something strange ran through the tabby on sight of what he is seeing. It was as tall as Sazh, yellow feathers, long legs, big beak, long neck, and made a strange sound. "Kweh!" The strange feeling he got was excitement. Immediately, Chance fell in love with the chocobos here and there.

"Oh!" Vanille gasped out too.

"Somebody's excited." Sazh chuckled at the two.

"Yeah." The small chocobo in that stayed in Sazh's hair flew out and landed on Vanille's shoulder. "Hey! You can make some new friends!" The little chick chirped happily.

"Dajh is crazy about chocobos. He really wanted to come here."

"Let's look around!" Chance said already heading to get near a chocobo he has been eyeing.

"Indeed. And in we go!" Sazh chanted as the three make their way inside.

Vanille and Chance were awe struck by all the animals in the area. "Chocobos! Chocobos! Chocobos everywhere! This is so radical! I want to ride one!" The tabby's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"You can't." Sazh said from behind the tabby. "They are owned by the park and riding one is only for the kids." Chance felt heartbroken and slouches with little tears falling from his eyes.

"Then that means I can ride one!" Vanille said cheerfully making Chance even more depressed. Just then, the choco-chick flew off.

"Hey! Come back here!" Sazh called out to the run away bird. Vanille gave chase and so did Chance, after recovering from his depression. They began their search all over the farm area.

"Over here!" Vanille called out by the herd of sheep. But, the choco-chick was on the move again. She sighed, "Never mind."

Chance was looking through some the toys in the cart. He held on to a Carbuncle plush doll and raised an eyebrow at it. "Not as plushy as my Scaredy-Kat doll." Small flapping wings perked his ears up and saw the choco-chick. "There you are!" He tried to grab him but it slipped through his paws.

"Where could that bird be?" Sazh said then leaned on the wall near the fountain. He heard the birds familiar call and looks to the right. There it was flying around the fountain and disappears again. The three looked everywhere again to come out only empty. Chance looked towards a group of Chocobos gathering around.

"He must be over there!" All three said together. They head over there and the choco-chick was flying right in the middle. The bird flew deeper into the farm area and was followed by the other Chocobos.

Soon they arrive at their gather point. Vanille giggled at the sight of their playful manner. "Part of the gang already."

"Uh-huh. Always good to be among friends." Sazh said peacefully.

"The fun times are double and your worries feel far away." Chance added.

"And nothing ever seems as scary when you have someone to share it with."

"Yep." Vanille agreed. The choco-chick flew back to nest in Sazh's afro. They all laugh. "You're still number one of course."

"Of course!" Sazh looked around and felt happy. "Thanks Vanille and Chance. Now when I see Dajh, I can tell him about the Chocobos." His tone went placid. Chance and Vanille listen close. "He's being held by the military."

"PSICOM, you mean?" Vanille asked. The tabby gasped and turned to Sazh.

"Yeah, since he's a Cocoon l'Cie." Chance was surprised to hear that his own son was a l'Cie. What really made him confused about this was that Sazh said Cocoon instead of Pulse. "They're running tests. They're trying to figure out his Focus." Vanille looked sad when Chance moved his gaze at her. "I'm turning my in."

"What? You can't? They'll…" Chance yelled out.

"I know they execute l'Cie, but…hey, they're not total monsters. They'll listen to a final request. They'll have to. Before the end, I want to talk to Dajh one last time. I want to tell him about these chocobos. I want to tell him about everything I've seen."

"But wait, Sazh!" Vanille walked towards him.

"Listen, I don't want you all to worry. You're not part of this. You two will have plenty of time to split before I surrender."

"That's not what I meant!"

"I'm sorry Vanille." Sazh turned around and faced away from them. "I'm just…I'm tired of all this running."

Vanille stepped back. Chance placed a paw on her shoulder. "But…you can't! What about Dajh? He's a l'Cie because someone from Pulse. You can't give up without getting revenge!" She hesitated, but looked directly at Sazh. "I know who it is. I know who's responsible. For the accident. The accident at Euride."

Sazh placed his hands on her shoulders know and glares at her. "Then tell me!"

"The l'Cie who ruined your life was-"

Chance pulled Vanille out of the way as the chocobos ran towards them. Gun fire surrounded them and avoided enemy fire as best as they can.

"Soldiers? Where did they come from?" Chance found a soldier retreating from the distance.

"Get out of here! Chance, take Vanille away!" Sazh ordered. He pulled out his pistols and fired. Soon the two stop as more soldiers appeared from ahead. Sazh came too and took his stance. The bridge behind them lifted up, blocking their only way to retreat.

"No place left to run." Chance took his stance next to Sazh. Hesitating, Vanille took hers. PSICOM fired their ammo and the three dispersed. Vanille casted her aerora spell causing the soldiers to loose their aim. Sazh fired away with flamestrike while Chance tackled, punched, and clawed the soldiers.

"Everyone alright?" Sazh asked after dispatching the small group. Sazh nodded and so did Vanille. They only had one way to go, so they chose that path. The soldiers came in greater numbers; making surviving harder for them. A robot came at Chance and knocked in away.

"That thing is gonna be scrap metal when I'm done with it!" His paw began to glow and punched the ground making a large brand appear. The soldiers step back in fear of the tabby is doing. Out of the brand bursts Hashmal and landed next to Chance. "Let's go!" Sazh and Vanille only attacked the soldiers as Chance worked on the robots that came at them. Like Chance said, each robot was busted in, out, and all around scrap metal.

Hashmal followed his master as the three escaped. When a group of soldiers blocked their path, Chance would order Hasmal to use Roxxor. A spell only his summon can use to magically call boulders from the ground to burst. Those who still managed to survive it, Sazh and Vanille dispatched them from a distance.

"Look out!" Chance called out as a large weapon landed before them. "Great, now I feel right at home. It looks like another Pumadyne special weapon."

"Sounds like you had your own share of destructive weapons." Sazh said taking his stance.

"Let's just say, it's not my first time fighting a world with robots." Chance was starting to feel tired, but he knew they had to destroy the machine.

"Well then, we're not going down that easy!" Sazh yells and began to cast Hast on everyone. Vanille launched her Deprotect and Deshell spells, but it didn't seem to land in as she suspected it to. Chance let Hashmal attack as he took the role as Sentinel and using Entrench after provoking the weapon. The weapon fired four blasts of lasers causing the tabby to fall to his knees rather quickly.

"Oh no!" Vanille began to heal Chance. The tabby was breathing to heavy and couldn't stand. "Chance, you have to call back Hashmal! The longer you use him the weaker you will get!" He nodded and with the flick of his wrist, the aura around his paw disappeared along with Hashmal. A bit of energy came back, but only enough for Chance to stand up.

"This isn't good!" Sazh fired away with his frost enhanced ammo. Vanille helped Sazh by casting her set of blizzards. Chance may be tired, but that didn't stop him from going all out. He charged in and started to thrash the legs. Sazh saw the tabby's determination and furry that he casted Bravery to increase his power, then Faith to Vanille.

It was a good thing Chance knew his way through machines and vehicles because once he found a way inside, the destruction of the weapon was cake. The tabby clawed through wires, pulled parts apart and his froststrike to destroy bigger parts.

Vanille and Sazh focused on the outside. The weapon fired lasers like crazy and occasionally, a poisonous gas. Vanille healed Sazh as he fired at the weapon to keep its distance. "What's taking Chance so long?" The he saw the front of the weapon come apart. It fell making a loud crashing sound and the tabby jumped out before it all completely collapsed; covered in oil and grease. His flight suit was somewhat torn, so he unzipped the suit half way to let it hang around his waist, revealing only his sweat covered white t-shirt.

"That was fun." Chance rubbed the back of his head then realizing his hat was missing. "Oh man, it must be under all that rubble. I really wanted to show Jake when we find them."

Sazh and Vanille shook their heads at the tom's dismay. The choco-chick flew off towards the weapon and beyond. Sazh's eyes widen to see who the chick flew to.

"Daddy, I found you!" The little boy ran to Sazh. Vanille gasped and Chance felt something was off about this. He boy hugged Sazh. "Daddy! Got you!" Sazh was confused at his boy's behavior.

"Dajh, why are you here?"

"Because you promised!" Dajh smiled back.

"But…how did you get here?" Fear ran through him as he inspects his son. Chance and Vanille watch as the two were reuniting, but that didn't last long. A flash of light caused Sazh to step back and blind them. Once it was clear, Dajh was turned to crystal. Chance eyes widen as the boy floated to complete his crystallization.

"Dajh! Wait! Come back!" Sazh cried out. A soft chuckle was heard and everyone looked towards the woman with soldiers walking towards them. The crystal lands back on the ground. "Not you…not you, Dajh!" Sazh began to cry for his son.

"The capture of undesirables. It seems that was your son's Focus!" Chance glares at the woman. "Dajh fulfilled it admirably, and served Cocoon in the process. You should be proud of him, Mr. Katzroy?" Vanille and Chance block the woman from getting any closer to Sazh. "Dajh was a great help. He could sense the power of Pulse origin. That let us monitor you. Words can't express our gratitude. The data he provided on enemy l'Cie was—invaluable." Vanille scoffed. "And speaking of gratitude…" The woman tossed a gadget in front of Sazh. A red beam came out of it to show an image of Vanille and someone else. "We enhanced the surveillance footage from the energy plant. Those are the Pulse l'Cie behind what happened. The picture's a little grainy but I'm sure you recognize that one. You've spent so much time together."

"_Fang let's go. What's our Focus even matter?"_

"_What's it matter?" Fang raised her voice. "You want to be a monster?"_

"_I just-"_

_Fang sighed. "Keep your chin up. We know the part that matters. Right? We are enemies of Cocoon. Know what I say? Play the part and raise some hell. Might jump-start our memories."_

"_What?"_

"_The fal'Cie. Let's smash it." Vanille gasped in disbelieve and looks towards it. They take out their weapons._

"_Who are you?" They both turn around to find the boy. Then a bust of lave shook them. The boy got scared and called for his dad and at the same time, getting a brand on his hand._

"Vanille…" Sazh spoke, but didn't know what to say. Chance gave Vanille a hard stern look. Vanille was already in tears when Sazh looked at her differently too.

"Yes. That young lady's terrorist assault at Euride Gorge is the reason Dajh was made a l'Cie. Ironic isn't it? The very girl you're protecting…is the one who stole your son." Sazh began to glare at Vanille. She began to panic.

"No!" Vanille screamed and ran off.

"Vanille wait…" Chance followed on her trail. A soldier took aim and was ordered to hold. The woman looked at the two l'Cie running off and turned back to Sazh.

"Shall we finish the job? Or would you prefer to?" Sazh didn't say anything, but made a chase for Vanille. The woman smiles devilishly as Sazh stormed off.

"Colonel Nabaat? What now?"

"Follow them, and observe. How often do l'Cie kill their own?"

* * *

><p>Vanille walked to a stop at a dead end. Her mind going off to why she ran away; if she could change what had happened. She looked up and her eyes widen when she saw an illusion of Sazh.<p>

"You are cold-blooded. Lying, so people would trust you. Using them as shields." Illusion Sazh aimed his pistols at Vanille. "How many you gotta drag down with you?"

"I'm –"

"A coward and a killer. The people you used don't get to live." Vanille stepped back. "Why should you?" Illusion Sazh fires and makes contact. Vanille staggered and fell to her knees. It was at that time when Chance came to pick her up.

"Vanille…are you okay?" The tabby watches her check herself for gun wounds.

"Tired of living with guilt?" Vanille turned back to face Illusion Sazh. "The die with it." The illusion faded away. Vanille fell again to her knees and looked towards the ground as Chance tried to ask for what was wrong.

Sazh came in panting after sprinting his way to them. He is holding on to his chest and points his gun at her. "Vanille." Chance eyes widen and gets in the way of his aim.

"Sazh, killing her won't make you feel any better." He saw Vanille get up and put herself in the spot.

"My name is Oerba Dia Vanille. I'm a l'Cie from Gran Pulse. And to everyone on Cocoon…evil." Chance gasped. "Shoot me! For your son."

"Don't you even!" Sazh yelled making Vanille flinch. "You think you die and that's that? You think you die and everything will be sugar and rainbows?"

"Then what can I do? What do you want from me? If I can't live or die, what do you want me to do?"

"Vanille…" Chance held her by her shoulder. He made sure that Vanille was out of Sazh's aim.

"Don't ask me! You figure it out." Sazh yelled back.

"I don't know!"

Sazh dropped his pistol to his side. "Neither do I." Sazh was still holding on to his chest. "It's over. There's nothing _to_ do. Shooting you won't help." Sazh let go of his pistol and fell to his knees. "Neither will living." Then his chest began to glow. Above him, an orb of fire spawns from nowhere. Sazh screamed from the pain and fell back. Chance and Vanille step back from the growing orb. Soon the orb dispersed and landed an eidolon, clad in armor and wielding a giant sword. Sazh glared at it and yelled, "Do your worst, you freak!"

Chance and Vanille get in front of Sazh and stand to protect him from the eidolon. Vanille turned to face Sazh from over her shoulder. "It's not over."

"Yeah," Chance looked at Sazh too. "We came this far together. Regardless of what we learned, we kept moving forward."

The eidolon points it's weapon at them and they didn't move or even falter. It took its stance. Sazh fired his pistols at the eidolon. Both Chance and Vanille look at him. The bullets bounce off the eidolon's armor.

"Okay, fine. You want me? Come and get me!"

Chance and Vanille saw Sazh's conviction and join him to fight the eidolon. Brynhildr used doom on Sazh then swung its blade and Chance used his strength to stop it. Sazh focused on strengthening the party as Vanille weakened it. Brynhildr retracts his weapon and turns it into a gun, firing directly at Chance. The blast threw him back and staggered to get back up.

"Chance!" Both yell but kept their focus on the eidolon. Vanille healed Chance and the tabby was back in the fray. He tried to call on Hashmal again but it wouldn't work. Brynhildr must be using some kind of magic that prevented him from using his eidolon.

"Damn it all!" Chance began to unleash magic embodied punches as the others begin to attack. Brynhildr swung down and broke the party's formation. It saw Vanille by herself and fired at her. Vanille closed her eyes, but someone pushed her out of the way. When she opened her eyes, she saw Sazh getting up and firing away. He walked closer and Brynhildr staggered back. Sazh's brand glowed again and the eidolon began to transform. It rode around them until it stopped in front of Sazh. It disappeared and the glow on his chest calmed down.

"Yeah," Chance pumped a fist in the air. "It looks like Sazh has an eidolon too." But his cheering quickly stopped when he saw Chance pointing at Vanille with his pistol "Sazh stop!"

Sazh moved closer as Vanille stepped back. Vanille stopped and decides to meet her fate. She spread out her arms and waited for the inevitable. Sazh kept a good aim at her. "Lot of things can be excused. Shooting kids ain't one." Chance quickly ran to Vanille when Sazh dropped his gun back to his side. Vanille began to cry and the tabby tried to ease her pain. Sazh lifted his pistol to his view. Slowly, he points it to his head. "Enough…is enough."

Chance just stared with shock as Vanille looked away. Then a loud bang penetrates their ears.

* * *

><p>Nabaat waited at the entrance of the ship. Sazh was being carried out in a casket and behind him was Chance and Vanille; wearing white robes like the ones they wore at the Hanging Edge. They were being escorted by PSICOM Soldiers. Nabaat walked up to them.<p>

"Do be careful with those." Vanille gave Nabaat a slight glare. "For ever task, there's a perfect tool."

Chance felt guilty. He was glad that this power was able to help Sazh and Vanille when they needed it. But to everyone on Cocoon, he was an enemy. The tabby was sure he was going to be executed. With them dead, things will go back to the way it was before.

"_I'm sorry Jake. It looks like…my time is up."_

* * *

><p><strong>Will Chance be able to see Jake again? If you played the game, then you already know that answer. Well, it was a dumb question. Of to the next in three, two, one ... really soon.<strong>


	15. Fourteen: The Palamicia Part One

Chapter 14: The Palamecia – Part One

Jake rushed his way to the bridge after being called through the intercom. The lean tom had been worried for hours when he was told that PSICOM had captured Sazh, Vanille, and his partner Chance. All he knew was that they were in Sanctum custody and on their way to Eden for a public execution.

'There is no way I'm letting these bastards kill Chance.' Jake thought.

The huge tech doors slid open and Jake continued his run to the small group gathered in front of a television screen. Jake watched in awe as to how huge the ship was and the number of smaller fleets flying around it for protection.

"It's nice of you to finally join us mate." Fang said patting Jake on his shoulder. She heard from their flight back to Lindblum that Jake was not from here and was separated from his partner when PSICOM went after them.

"_There she is. The Palamecia, pride of the Sanctum skyfleet. This mighty flagship currently serves as a prison for the l'Cie apprehended in Nautilus. The l'Cie will face official sentencing upon the convoy's arrival in the capital."_

"So what's with the freak show?" Snow asked in irritation.

"So the Primarch can stand in judgment of the villainous l'Cie…with their execution as the climax." Rains explained. "The people will cheer their demise, and fal'Cie dominion will be undisputed."

"All part of the plan." Lightning interjected.

"Yes, but it also presents us an opportunity."

"_In a display of unwavering dedication to duty…the Primarch himself has boarded the Palamecia…and focused his personal attention on resolving the Pulse crisis."_

"They're baiting us. Trying to draw us out." Fang said.

"Bait, huh?" Snow thought on Fang's theory.

"Yeah that's right: 'Here are your friends. Come and get 'em.'" Lightning said.

"I'm not even human and they see me as an l'Cie just like the rest of you." Jake shuddered at the thought. "Believe me, I want to help rescue Chance and the others get out of there. The sooner we do, the sooner we can find a way to remove our brands."

"Well, if they're daring us to mount a rescue… I'll take that action. All in." Snow punched his fists together in excitement.

"Alrighty, bets are on the table. We leave when you're ready. I'll be standing by." Reagha said heading to his ship.

Jake stared at the man for a while before turning his attention back to what he needed to do to prepare on their rescue mission. On his way to the armory they were given special access to, he saw Lighting talking to Rains. He overheard their conversation and learned that PSICOM would be inspecting the Lindblum as they approach so they should careful.

At the armory, he befriended a soldier who was injured on the night of their pick up from Hope's home. Jake helped him from the gun shot on his abdomen and was now returning to duty after one night. The medical inventions in this world amazed him and also all the mana-drives they invented to fight l'Cie in equal terms.

"Hey Jake, your glovatrix is now fixed and upgraded. It's much stronger and it should fire enhanced missiles. I did the same to the other glove." The soldier handed the tom both gloves; slipped one on and saw that the soldier was right.

"Whoa, what did you do to my glovatrix? I feel a surge of power going through it."

"I used Chobham Armor for the exterior to decrease the risk of excessive damage done to the glove. I even used several Crystal Oscillators to boost your magical abilities." Jake could only look at the soldier with an amazed look across his face. "Now, these are a few missiles I want you to take. They're very powerful since they are created with Bomb Cores and strong catalyst called Uranite."

"Wait, what about the other glovatrix?" Jake asked since he needed to know what he did to Chance's glove. It felt different in his paws, but he couldn't sense any form of magical enhancements.

"Oh that one. Well, I used some Synthetic Muscle to increase strength other than your friend's magical core. If he's as big as you say he is, he's going to love what I did to his glove. There is a small Supercharger in both your glovatrixes so when you're low in energy or close to tiring out, the Supercharger will activate to increase your strength and magical powers."

"Geez, you didn't have to transform my gadget pal." Jake said with a chuckle. "Thanks for all your help. I don't know how to repay you."

"Don't. You have done enough by saving my life and this is just something to help save your friend's life." Jake smiled at the soldier and said his goodbye before heading back to the others for their mission.

On his way, he saw Hope heading his way to the same location. They both nodded their heads and continued to the bridge holding their ride to the Palamecia. "Nervous…?" Jake asked the teen.

"A little… We are fighting against PSICOM after all."

"Right…"

* * *

><p>"This baby back here's a PSICOM vessel. It'll deliver you to the Palamecia." Reagha said.<p>

"Oh, we're cargo now?" Snow asked feeling a little annoyed.

"A parting gift to our rotting government. Take those PSICOM guys apart."

"And we're supposed to take on all of them? I think the whole division's on board." Lightning protested.

"I don't care how many lackeys they've got. Bring 'em on! Vanille's in there." Fang stepped forward pumping her companions.

"I'm sure she's fine." Hope said reassuring Fang. "Vanille's tougher than I could ever be."

"Hope, are you scared?" Lightning asked feeling worried about the boy.

"Yeah, I'm terrified. But I'll be okay." Lightning looked a little puzzled at Hope's attitude. "Because I have you, and this guy, Fang, and Jake too. We're all in this mess. We've got to stick together."

"Right, enough with the bonding." Reagha ordered and led the l'Cie into the ship. Jake followed right behind and checked if his glove was securely on and loaded with new missiles.

* * *

><p>"We didn't expect to see you here in person, Your Eminence." Colonel Nabaat said.<p>

"This crisis threatens the entirety of Cocoon, my child. You agree that standing at the fore is a leader's charge?"

"Wholeheartedly."

"It also affords a splendid view of the impending execution." Diestly chuckled darkly.

* * *

><p>"<em>What's the holdup?"<em> Reagha asked annoyed.

"Stand by. Verifying identification code."

"_You let me land this bird, or I'll crash her into your ass!"_

"Code verified. You're free to dock."

"_About damn time."_

"All clear. Welcome aboard."

* * *

><p>Jake and the others walked slowly on the docks, looking around the huge spacious structure. The humming of the aircraft was loud and the wind could be heard over such loud noise.<p>

**CODE RED! REPEAT: CODE RED! ATTENTION ALL CREW: THIS IS NOT A DRILL! CODE RED!**

Everyone saw PSICOM soldiers heading their way and pointing their guns right at them. Jake did the same action with his glovatrix as the others pulled out their weapons.

"All right. Let's tear 'em up!"

"We're here for Vanille, Sazh, and Chance. Stay focused!" Lighting ordered.

Fang made a dash to the middle soldier and knocking him back with one simple thrust of her spear. She quickly dodged the fire of the other soldiers' line of fire and they were engulfed by Hope's and Jake's thunder magic spells. Lightning attacked head on with her blade, making vertical slices in an advancing push while Snow throttled the other. More soldiers came running from the door as they finished off the small group.

"Looks like they want to play." Fang said feeling cocky.

"No kidding. So where to?"

"Right up there." Fang pointed at the climbable pillar.

"You guys go on ahead! I'll draw their attention from the inside!" Jake charged forward into the group of soldiers, already firing at the tom. Jake waved an arm and struck them all with a wide radius Fira. The blast was intense and almost fell the soldiers with one cast.

Jake looked up seeing that the others have made it up and on their way. He went to kick a soldier clear on his chest. The soldier to his right made a swing with his weapon and knocked Jake off his feet. Jake rolled out of the way of another hit from the soldier's nightstick and fired a spider missile from his glovatrix; wrapping them in one shot.

"Too bad guys." Jake smirked a bit while walking his way to the tied enemy and knocked them out with a single punch. "Now I'm on my way to save the others."

* * *

><p>The tabby sat in a corner, arms crossed, ears laid flat to his head, and sighed. They have been placed here since they were transported into the ship from Nautilus. Chance hadn't gotten much sleep because the cargo hold they were in, that was used as a prison cell, had little place to make a comfort spot on and was too busy thinking about how Jake will react when he learns that he was captured and then later on dead.<p>

"Sazh?" Vanille tried to talk to the man but he just stood there, looking at the floor.

...

"_Enough…is enough."_

_**BANG!**_

_Sazh dropped his pistols and fell to his knees. He slammed his fists on the ground, "Why can't I do it? I got no reason to keep living. I can't even kill you." Sazh started to cry to himself._

_Vanille slowly got up from the tabby's protective arms and went toward him._

"_Sazh…"_

"_Freeze!"_

_PSICOM soldiers immediately surrounded them, guns pointed. Vanille looked around in horror as they easily pinned down the tabby._

"_Take 'em!" one of the soldiers ordered. Vanille was then grabbed by soldiers to hold her down and saw that Sazh got the same treatment. She heard a growl coming from Chance but he didn't do anything to provoke a quick death. Vanille looked at the woman walking towards them with two guards' right behind her._

"_You should be proud. Your son's a hero. The boy who saved Cocoon. We'll erect a memorial in Eden and put his crystal on display."_

"_A memorial? He's a little boy!" Sazh tried to fight the hold on him._

"_As the son of a Pulse l'Cie, he would have lived in shame and misery. Isn't it better he be treated with reverence, as a monument to sacrifice?" Sazh them went out of control and were really getting hard for the soldiers to contain him. Nabaat swung her rod at his neck and somehow knocked out Sazh._

"_The next time your eyes open will be the last."_

...

"I'm pathetic." Sazh said while going to sit down.

"That's my line. I'm the one who lied to everyone." Vanille interjected, looking to the floor.

"Forget it. You can't change what's done."

"But, if I just told the truth -"

"Now, now, now. I've been thinking. You woke up from being a crystal once." Chance's ears perked up to what Sazh said. Vanille wasn't like everyone else on Cocoon. He could almost relate to her since they were both from different places entirely. Yet, it couldn't help him ease up knowing he's going to die soon.

"That means Dahj will wake up one day too, right?" Vanille nodded to Sazh's question.

"What was it like?" Chance asked, he was still huddled to himself but wanted to hear at least something good out of this.

"Yeah, how did it happen? You were done with your Focus, right?" Sazh followed up. Vanille sighed and began to explain in a calm voice full of remorse.

"I was chosen. I was made a l'Cie to fight against Cocoon. It happened back in Grand Pulse, hundreds of years ago. We finished our Focus, and we fell into a long crystal sleep."

...

_Vanille's eyes open, looking around the strange vestige she somehow became to be. It didn't take long for her to find her friend beside her._

"_Fang!"_

_Fang woke up and did the same, look around in a confused state and wondered on how they even got there._

...

"We woke up…on Cocoon, to the start of a new Focus. Fang…she forgot everything. And for me – just the thought of hurting people again…it was too much. So I lied. I played dumb, said I'd lost my memory. I wanted to escape my fate as a l'Cie. And ever since then, I've been running away from it."

* * *

><p>The smaller tom fired more and more of his Ravager skills toward the soldiers; hitting them with a barrage of Pulse magic. More and more PSICOM troops made their advance trying to capture the tom from doing anymore damage to what he has already done by dwindling their numbers as best as he could. Eventually, Jake was then facing the forces mechanical armada. A robot with a sharp fan like arm, similar to the ones he faced in Palumpolum, made a quick tackle and sending the poor tom tumbling and crashing to a wall.<p>

"It's just like fighting one of Pumadyme's or Dark Kat's inventions." Jake smirked, lifting his glovatrix and firing several missiles and rendering his attacking enemy to scrap metal. "Only these guys are much easier."

**ATTENTION ALL CREW: CODE GREEN! REPEAT: CODE GREEN! SECURITY FORCES STAND BY! HOSTILE FORCES ON BOARD, CODE GREEN!**

"Maybe I can finally catch a break." Jake lifted himself up from after being hit rather hard. He fell forward slightly after taking a step. His back was stinging and needed it healed but Hope and Lightning were the only ones that could do just that but he had to make due with the bottles of potions he took along with him.

"Over there!" "Stop the Pulse l'Cie!"

Again, the soldiers returned and took aim at Jake. Lasers pointing directly around his chest and forehead, hoping to shoot him and ending him quickly but Jake never gave them the chance to even think about pulling the trigger. In that instant, he felt his shoulder burning and concentrated his power to his left arm and launched what he assumed was a blast of flames. Fire engulfed the squad and sent them panicking, firing their weapons and screaming in pain from such tremendous power.

"Just stay focused and find Chance so you can get out of here." Jake told himself as he passed by the dying soldiers. He hated the power of l'Cie and wanted to be rid of it as fast as he could. This power had done nothing but brought bloodshed ever since he first appeared in this world. The thought of killing an innocent soldier, whether they want him dead, it wasn't something he could do.

As he continued down the ship's hallways, soldiers constantly blocked his path to try to contain him. Things were getting out of hand for him and got him surrounded. Jake was breathing heavily; blood fell from the gash he earned from one soldier and blinding his vision to half. The soldiers slowly stepped forward, stopping every time Jake lifted his glovatrix.

'This is it. I'm sorry. I couldn't save you Chance.' He dropped his arm back to his side and the soldiers took aim to finish him off. But then, he heard gun fire coming from a distance away. He looked up and saw the troops turning their attention toward Lightning, Hope, and Fang. Even further back, Snow was dealing with a soldier that tried to ambush him.

"Don't even think about giving up." Lightning said as she began to throw soft healing lights toward their weaken companion. "You have a friend who needs your help and dying won't do a thing. You're with us to the very end. Human or not."

"Can you keep fighting?" Jake turned to the white haired boy, no, young man giving him a look he had never seen. Hope had fire burning in his eyes and was determined to see this through just as much as everyone else. Jake smiled and noticed that he too wanted to see this end.

"Yeah."

* * *

><p><strong>ATTENTION ALL CREW: CODE GREEN! REPEAT: CODE GREEN! SECURITY FORCES STAND BY! HOSTILE FORCES ON BOARD, CODE GREEN!<strong>

Chance looked at the small screen containing the warning of their new situation. He was wondering what was going outside and got up to join in Sazh's and Vanille's curiosity. Just then, the doors opened and two soldiers came in with a huge wasp like creature. Chance was kind of holding back his fear after what he experienced with bugs and didn't get as used to it as he thought when he and Jake fought the ci-kat-a.

"Get up! You're being moved!" One soldier harshly grabbed Vanille and pulled her to her feet. Chance growled at the soldier and was held back with gun point. He was getting tired of being treated this way.

"You too!" Sazh stayed where he was and didn't budge. To the soldier's annoyance, he tried to force Sazh to get up. At that moment, the chocockick attacked the soldier, making him take his focus and was attacked immediately by Sazh. The second soldier was too distracted by the scuffle that he didn't see Chance coming at him with a powerful tackle. The wasp monster was getting ready to defend its master but Vanille grabbed the soldier's gun and turned fire upon it and killing it.

"All right, time to split. Not _run_. There's a difference." Sazh said to both Vanille and Chance.

"Gotcha." Both said and gave each other a look before smiling.

All three ran down the hall, stopping at the corner of the hallways and checking to make sure the coast was clear. They found the room that held their weapons and other items. Chance was keeping lookout for any soldiers but what he saw was not even human or animal but looked similar to the flans they fought at the Sunleth Watherscape.

"Do I deserve to escape?" Chance turned back, seeing Vanille having her doubts again. He didn't like seeing her like this and just wished for her to smile like she used to.

"What, you'd rather die?" It was Vanille's turn to look at the tabby. "'Cause that's got to scare you. Scares me. Scares me so much, I think I might die of fright. So, I push myself to live even harder. I can just imagine Jake, laughing at me talking this nonsense. Right now, I'd do anything to see that smile." Chance said. Vanille gave him a warm chuckle.

"Staying positive, right?" Sazh said as he went to pat Chance on the shoulder.

**CODE PURPLE! I REPEAT: CODE PURPLE! SECURITY BREACH! ALL UNITS ON ALERT! CODE PURPLE!**

"Looks like we ain't the only ones cleaning house. It could be l'Cie." Sazh said.

"Could be Fang." Vanille said excitedly. "Come on, let's hurry."

"Let's go get rescued." Vanille shook her head at Chance's comment.

"No, not this time. For once in my life, _I_ am going to save _her_."

Sazh chuckled, "All right, now you're talking! Let's go!"

* * *

><p><strong>CODE PURPLE! I REPEAT: CODE PURPLE! SECURITY BREACH! ALL UNITS ON ALERT! CODE PURPLE!<strong>

"All these colors. What's it mean?" Hope asked as they stopped and turned to the monitor announcing their trouble.

"Means we're doing our job." Fang answered the boy jokingly. "Making a lot of PSICOM guys nervous."

"Who are they fighting?" Jake asked the next question. He thought he heard Fang say a name under her breath. There was anger and worry in her brown eyes.

The next place they entered seemed like part of the engine. A large and wide pillar sent pulsing energies up and down. PSICOM weapons roam these pathways and getting across wasn't easy for them. The occasional soldiers got in their way but were dispatched off within seconds. Soon enough, the fights became child's play and infiltration was a breeze. They hoped they will eventually find the others.

* * *

><p>"Colonel! We've lost the intruders!"<p>

"That means, we're Code Yellow. No, wait, Code Blue?" Nabaat was pacing back and forth, fathomed that the situation had turned dire. "If we were Orange, that would mean-"

"The escapees made it through! They're entering the engine room!"

"No! Damn l'Cie!" Nabaat crushed her glasses in her palms in anger.

"Intruders located! They're on the weather deck, starboard side!"

"Make it rain!" Nabaat ordered.

"Desperate times demand flexibility." Diestly said. "Code White." With the order out, the crew began to type in codes.

* * *

><p>"<em>Bridge to engine room. We're losing thrust. Engine room, do you copy? What is the status of the main reactor?"<em>

"Power's down." Sazh said as they saw the orb like engine's lights fade out. "What's going on?"

"It seems the others are doing one hell of a job getting us free." Chance said gleefully. He turned around and saw the PSICOM breed monsters advancing toward them. "Uh oh, we got trouble."

"Well isn't this great?" Sazh groaned, taking out his pistols. "Let's hope we don't die fighting these hunks of metal monsters.

Chance charged at the Vespid Soldier, punching a hole in its lantern like body. Vanille and Sazh were focused on the Thermadon, an armored turtle that fired heat lasers at them after charging for several minutes. One after another, these weapons made their way towards them and eventually, they took down the last of the monsters.

"All right!" Chance pumped his fist in the air and cheering for finally dealing with the last Thermadon. "So, how do we get out of here? We are at a dead end and there is no other way out."

"I wouldn't say 'no other way'." Vanille smiled devilishly at both males and giggled knowing at a knowledge she had kept to herself, for now.


	16. Fifteen: The Palamicia Part Two

**I Listened to Figthing Fate about 100 times to get what I needed toward the end of this chapter. If you want, kinda spoiling ahead of here, for the last battle put up YouTube and search the battle theme Fighting Fate. It might build up the suspense, but I don't know.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 15: The Palamicia – Part Two<p>

Jake was the first to reach the outside of the ship as the others followed right behind him. Something wasn't right and everything seemed calm for a group of soldiers coming after them. Not only that, the small tom felt a little more comfortable with the winds blowing gently onto his face.

"Wait…"

"The wind—it's dying down." Hope seemed to have noticed it just as the Jake had.

"Yeah, it's stopping. And _we're_ decelerating." Lighting crossed her arms not liking the turnabout. "They up to something?"

"I don't suppose it could just be—I don't know—good luck?" Snow said sheepishly as he rubbed his head; trying to keep lively attitudes toward the antagonist always trying to shut him away. A loud sound came from ahead and platforms began to raise releasing PSICOM creatures and droids.

"That looks a lot more like bad luck." Fang said.

"You got a point."

"Not to me." Lightning spoke out. That? That we can do something about."

"Then what are we waiting for? We have some friends that need saving." Jake charged in; immediately followed by Snow then the others. The blond man didn't hesitate at anything that came at their way. If a Vespid Soldier went for a charge, Snow would get in the way and defend his comrades. Lightning was always determined and picked out her enemies expertly, slaying and downing any creature and soldier that came at them. To Jake, Fang seemed to be the wildest fighter of the group by stabbing her share with her lance and gracefully slashing when she separated her lance into two smaller spears for each hand. Hope was smarter and, now, more experienced. Magic was his strength point and but he was also their only support by bestowing magic to the team by increasing their offensive and defensive attributes.

Jake felt more at home with them and could see that they aren't that different from anyone in their world. They lived with a purpose, strived for a goal, and now, they all strived for one thing that they all shared in common; a Focus.

As they continued, a fast yellow light rushed by and halted the party at their tracks. The light actually turned out to be a winged beast; one of PSICOM's twisted experimentations sent out to eliminate them.

"So, Light… How do you figure this makes us lucky?" Fang asked sounding half sarcastic.

"Because when we kill it, we're one step closer to Vanille. How's that?"

"Well, when you put it that way!"

The bright yellow winged beast fired a blast of electricity from its tail, dispersing its targets into two groups. Jake fired one of his new missiles and made a direct hit to the creature's chest. The power of the new missile was more intense then he could have ever thought as the monster was actually pushed back quite a distance. It returned diving for a powerful tackle, separating the team once again and it quickly fired another blast, hitting and staggering Lightning and Snow.

Hope was immediately surrounded in green light to begin healing his injured comrades as Fang glowed gray to weaken their new threat. Jake began to launch clear orbs of light at the monster while evading blast after blast of the powerful electricity it emitted from its large tail. But, as the tom got closer, it spun and got a good hit on Jake and sent him almost off the ship itself.

"This thing is a pain in the neck!" Snow got back to his feet, thinking before actually making a move.

"We need a plan. Our regular tactics aren't working on him." Hope said, making quick work on healing Jake.

"You guys distract it! I'll try to hit him with another missile from my glovatrix!" Jake shouted. "I promise you, I won't miss and, hopefully, get rid of it!"

"I don't hear any other suggestions so let's go with it." Lightning ordered Snow and Fang to charge at the monster as she and Hope backed up with their magic. Jake waited for the right time to fire. Glove pointed at the winged nuisance; his team struggling to keep it still and at one place. Jake bit his lower lip. He clenched his fist. A missile was fired and made direct contact and this one made a bigger explosion.

"Did we…finish it off?"

As the smoke cleared away, a loud thud it the ground and then the sound of something sliding off. The group relaxed and cheered a bit, but another of that same monster came out for its turn.

"One big, fat stroke of luck after another. I'm so happy I could cry." Snow said agitated and tired. The monster flew past them at a speed that caused them to hold their ground and not be pushed back by the rushing wind.

"Tease us, will ya?" "Come down here!"

An explosion came from the wall just to the left of them. Hope almost lost his balance and was quickly supported by Jake. A large black smoke blocked their view of who could have done such damage. Then, a small yellow bird began to fly around the group; chirping excitingly.

"Vanille!"

"Fang!"

"Jake!"

"Chance!"

Fang rushed to the young girl and embraced her; not wanting to let her go. Jake on the other hand, when he saw Chance, he punched the crap out of his partner. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?" The small tom yelled. He lowered his arm and started to shudder at the final release of his emotions.

"Sorry Jake." The tabby placed a firm paw on his long-separated friend to comfort him. "I'm here now, right? We can finally find a way to get back home."

"You've still got time." Both toms turned to Fang, sighing in relief when she checked on Vanille's brand.

"Fang… There's—there's something I need to tell you."

"Making me worried like that… We'll talk later, Missy."

Sazh could tell that Vanille really wanted to tell her now. He became sad knowing just what she was going to say. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Sazh saw that Snow and the others were looking at him rather worried. "Oh, uh…nothing! It's nothing. Uh—so? What's on the agenda?"

"Toppling the Sanctum." Snow answered bluntly while punching a fist to his palm.

"No, I mean really."

"He's serious. We're gonna take down the Sanctum and give Cocoon back to the people." Lightning stepped forward, with full clearance in her tone and making sure Sazh knew she was telling the truth. "The fal'Cie have called the shots for long enough."

"If we pull this off, it will be a miracle." Hope said.

"Well, good thing Lady Luck's on our side." Jake said feeling a little better and ready to go. Suddenly, the monster came back trying to finish them off. It kept a very far distance from them and seemed to be thinking on when and how to attack.

"You know, this is getting really old." Chance groaned at the sight of the new monster.

"Check this out. A miracle—Grand Pulse style!" Fang and Vanille rushed forward as the winged monster was going to pass by. "Vanille, go fish!"

"Got it." Vanille took her stance, ready to endure the attack that was going to come. After it passed, Vanille swung her rod, the whips slinging their way to the monster and grabbing hold of it. The creature was forcibly pulled by the power that came from the girl.

"Fang!" She nodded and went jumping toward the sky and lanced right on the creatures back causing it to crash hard on the surface of the ship.

"That's a good girl." Fang turned around, signaling her comrades. "Alright."

Vanille cheered a bit and smiled by the awed expression on her friend's faces. "Let's get on!" Without a second thought, they quickly made their way to their captured monster to fly them to the bridge of the ship.

The monster was doing rather good and being very responsive to Fang's driving and control. Now flying over the Palamicia, they saw how big it actually looked like. Chance knew this ship would make Turmoil's ship look half as big.

"You believe in Lady Luck now?" Fang asked excitedly.

"Yeah—Lady _Bad_ Luck!" Sazh answered to Fang's rhetorical.

"Time to Purge a Primarch!" Snow punched his fists together again at the anticipation.

"You got it!" Fang went along with Snow.

"Jump!" Lightning ordered as they hovered above the bridge. Sazh was the only one who found a problem with that. As he saw everyone jumping out one at time, he finally got the courage to follow suit.

Everyone groaned and struggled to get up after landing on the surface. Jake helped his friend get up but was almost brought back down by the tabby. "Hey, before I forget," the small tom took out his partner's glovatrix, "here's you glove. I'm sure you'll find it rather useful now."

Chance slipped in the glove and immediately felt the difference. It wasn't as flexible as it always was and a lot stiffer, yet it moved along with every flex of his appendages. "What did you do to it? It feels like I can punch the hell out of anything."

"Hey, I'm the only one who can do some real punching." Snow butted in after the burly tom's comment. "You on the other hand," The tall blond guy looked over at Jake, "you can really move while you aren't using those missiles."

"I can be just nibble as my buddy here!"

"Chance, don't go off making enemies with our new friends!"

"Right…"

"Dysley's through there." Lightning said looking toward the gate right in front of them. Everyone began to make their way to the gate. Fang stopped and turned toward Vanille.

"We're still going to have our talk. But let's survive this first, yeah?"

"Right."

"Are you guys ready?" Lightning looked back toward her comrades. They all had determination written on their faces; ready to face whatever will happen once they barge in. "Alright, let's move!"

The gate opened and in they rushed weapon in hands. The bridge was wide and there was an open space just big enough for all of them to fit. The Primarch looked down at them with utter hate and disgust as his Colonel stood proudly trying to defend her leader.

"Been looking for you, Nabaat!"

Colonel Nabaat jumped to base level with her enemies and ready to take on the intruding l'Cie. She pulled out her rod-like weapon as Sazh pulled a gun at her. "Your Eminence, please escape. I'll cover your retreat."

"Why don't you leave, Jihl." The Primarch spoke. "Or rather, take your leave. Humans have no business here."

"What?" Nabaat turned around to look at the Primarch. "Your Eminence!" A powerful blast of pure light hits the colonel; killing her on the spot. The l'Cie gasp at what just happened and look directly at the Primarch with his staff held out.

"Wha…? Magic?" Jake feared the worse was about to begin. The Primarch, Dysley, started to ascend, chuckling wickedly, and held his staff above him as six more spheres of light spawned at once. He swung his rod and attacked the crew of the ship; killing them all.

"Dysley! Monster! People are not yours to use!" Snow yelled, hate filling him up quickly at what the Primarch, the leader of Cocoon, did to his very own crew.

"What else does one do with tools?" The Primarch chuckled darkly as he descended before the l'Cie. Snow snapped and went to punch the bastard but a magical shield rebounded Snow back and had him crashing on his back.

"Snow!" Everyone called out. They went to check on him and let him be as he was staggering to get back to his feet.

"Cocoon is a factory built by fal'Cie. A factory for the mass production of human thralls."

"Not anymore, it's not!" Snow bit back.

"What can mere men do? Without our help, death is all of which you're capable. You saw the fools. A mindless mob drunk on fear of a few l'Cie."

"If they only knew a l'Cie was the one filling their glasses!" Lightning readied her blade, taking a stance before the Primarch.

"L'Cie?" Once again the Primarch chuckled darkly; sending a terrible chill down their spines. "You mean me? Oh child, perish the thought. I am more than that!" An owl flew by and made contact with the light Dysley emanated from his staff. A bright flash blinded them. The sound of what seemed to be gears moving infiltrated their ears. "I am fal'Cie. My name is Barthandelus. Voice of the Sanctum, and Lord Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie." Everyone stepped back by the sudden change the Primarch had taken; a large dark armored being with two moaning faces to his left and another set to his right; the front of the armor opened to reveal the fal'Cie's true face.

"Your kind feared the darkness, so we gave you light. You begged us for the Purge, and did it not come to pass? Now you spurn our counsel? You must learn your place!"

Four blasts of powerful magic hit the l'Cie that was spontaneously coming from the fal'Cie. Hope and Vanille wearingly began to heal their comrades as Lightning, Fang, and Snow made for the main body but was blocked by the shield guarding Barthandelus' face. More powerful spells hit the l'Cie; making them struggle for their survival as they didn't expect to fight one of the beings that watched over them as mindless tools and puppets.

One of the faces to the left of the fal'Cie was forming a sphere of water right above it while its adjacent face formed a chilling air. Jake had observed its behavior as they were onslaught by magic from the four faces and the fal'Cie itself. He noticed that each face only attacked with the same spell; the far left casted Water, adjacent to it casted Blizzard, the far right casted Thunder, and its neighbor casted Fire; while the fal'Cie attacked them with countless lasers and his bout of Ruin and a power Ruinga. No matter how many attacks and strikes they made to the fal'Cie, it was doing absolutely little to nothing.

Another onslaught of fire chains made their way to Jake, but it was a little to late for him to avoid them as each blob of flame made contact; burning him from the inside rather than the outside. It was a terrible feeling, but one that faded away after three soft lights brought him back to his feet.

"Stay Focused Jake!" Lightning ordered with all her will to stay alive. She was about to make another attempt but was forced to a stop by a chain of Thunder falling from above. It was her turn to be healed and everything they fought for to get this far was slipping through their grasps.

"What's the matter? Has your resolve fallen along with your petty power?" Everyone groaned; breathing for air after their failing attempts.

"We need to attack the faces! It's the only thing protecting Barthandelous!" Jake ordered out as he launched his very one chain of fire spells to the left of the fal'Cie. To his hypothesis, the face made signs of pain and did not like the attack. Barthandelous even showed sign that he was taking some of the pain as well.

"Alright!" Chance went for the far left face that was being hit by chain after chain of electricity, with an infused fist of Thunder to deal a powerful punch. The tabby was surprised that his punch was more powerful than it normally was with the glove alone as it disintegrated the left pauldron.

Barthandelous growled and began to glow slightly. It started to fire its lasers at a faster pace and the normal chains of spells became a chain of wide radius magic blasts. Vanille and Hope had to stay as Medics in order to heal everyone and themselves as the party continued to endure the second tier magic attacks. The fal'Cie's Thundara kept Snow and Fang at bay while its Fira slowed down Chance, Lighting, and Jake from attacking any more. Sazh was their only distant attacker and supported by helping enhance the team by increasing their strengths and defenses against the fal'Cie's magical barrage.

The second face on the right had fallen and again the fal'Cie roared in anger; cursing the l'Cie for their impudence. Another dangerous glow surrounded Barthandelous and the others knew that meant that the fal'Cie god had gotten stronger. The third face was immediately downed and the team was being barraged by a powerful third tier spell Thundaga. This spell crashed down upon all eight, bringing them down to their knees before the fal'Cie.

"Sazh! Take my place!" Lightning surrounded in green light and began to heal along side Hope and Vanille. Sazh was covered with a red light and began to shoot his pistols to the one face they needed to down. Another heavenly strike of electricity caused their actions to be cancelled, but it did little to slow down their determination. Chance had gotten on one knee and fired a missile that made its target and finished off the remaining of the fal'Cie's defenses. His armor fell and only his face appeared before them; anger and the need to put the l'Cie to rest.

"Face my true power!" Bathandelous opened its face to reveal a multitude of mini laser canons all in one area. They all fired repeatedly and pushed back the l'Cie a few steps. More Ruin spells hit them and not giving up while the now two medics heal their comrades from the rear. Lightning had changed to striking with infused slashing attacks along side with Sazh, while Jake and Fang began to render the fal'Cie of its strength and defenses. Snow and Chance were the only two Commandos attacking physically; punch after punch and Snow had to admit that he wasn't the only brutal guy with fists.

The top part of the fal'Cie opened to reveal even more of his canons only these were much bigger. What sounded like the revving of an engine, they knew from the start that Barthandelous was charging for his most powerful attack yet.

"Everyone fall back!" Snow said as he, Fang, and Chance gathered together to make a wall as a bright yellow light engulfed them and faded away. Barthandelous fired his attack and the damage did as he expected at the least, but was beginning to get enraged by their resistance.

"Let's take him down once and for all!" Lightning called forth Odin and the two began to hack away. Snow called forth the two ice sisters, Nix and Stiria, to join him in their fight. Chance called forth his and so did Sazh, both using their eidolons to finish off the fal'Cie god. Barthandelous had not come to conclude that they would have gotten control of their destroyers; the beings that would have one day killed them if they disobeyed their Focus.

The attacks came all out and Barthandelous had to fall in defeat against the l'Cie set out to kill him. His large hands hit the ground with a thud and the body started to glow and fade away into nothing as a final twinkle of light showed that they had won their long struggling battle.

"Is—is it over?" Chance turned to everyone as he commanded his eidolon back to him. Nothing happened. They released a sigh and eased their weapons.

"A fal'Cie running the Sanctum…" Snow said after quite some time.

"Then…I guess it wasn't Eden controlling things after all." Hope said. A powerful force made them wince as the Primarch reappeared before them.

"As I said. I am Lord Sovereign."

"Guess fal'Cie don't go down as easy as the rest of us." Jake said.

"Ease is not the issue. You have not fought to win. You should know quite well already the sure way of dispatching our kind." Everyone gasped. "Ragnarok." The l'Cie's gasps grew louder as they suddenly realized the truth.

"What's Ragnarok?" Jake, Chance, and Fang asked. Fang felt a sudden pain on her right shoulder and struggled to will it away.

"Pitiful l'Cie, you've forgotten your Focus." The Primarch raised an arm and began to point down ever single one of them, "Ragnarok is the beast one of you must become in order to lay waste to Cocoon." He stopped directly on both toms. "You have had the dream. One among you will become that monstrosity, defeat Orphan, and destroy Cocoon."

"Orphan?" Lightning asked.

"The font of Eden's power. Orphan fuels Eden with Strength, and Eden in turn sustains you and the rest of our kind. Destroy Orphan, and you'll release a force such as this world has never seen. Cocoon will be torn asunder."

"So if I did that…" Everyone turned to Fang, "Destroyed Orphan…" The Primarch suddenly appeared right in front of her.

"Your Focus would be fulfilled."

"So what?" Lightning made for a slash but the Primarch avoided the attack before getting hit. "Who says it has to be?"

"Serah asked us to save Cocoon before she turned to crystal. Save it. And that's what we're gonna do! Serah was trying to tell us how to complete our Focus, and we have—" The Primarch began to laugh coldheartedly at what was coming out of Snow.

"Allow me to help you see the truth of the things. The moment you arrived, your friend wept crystal tears. This was because her Focus required that you be brought together. That girl did nothing more but assemble the tools for Cocoon's destruction."

Snow was taken aback by what he just heard. Chance couldn't believe it either and when he turned to his partner, the horrible truth had brought the small tom to his knees.

"Did it never occur to you? Or did you simply refuse to countenance the thought?" Lightning gave Snow a sympathetic look after seeing the hurt he was in. The ship began to tremble as if it just had an earthquake.

"If you will not face the truth, then face the peril of your plight." The owl from before flew by again and transformed into an airship. "Run, l'Cie! See how stark reality is!" With his final judgment said, the Primarch disappeared. Again the ship rocked harder than the first one making everyone loose their balance.

"Come on!" Nobody hesitated and boarded the ship that was given to them.

* * *

><p>The Palamicia main dock exploded and the ship began to descend to the ground. The airship that the l'Cie were given barely made it out by the skin of their teeth.<p>

"This is bad! The yoke's jammed!" Sazh said as he tried to gain control of the ship.

"What?" Chance and Lightning said at the same time.

"I knew it was a trap!" Snow said.

"Something's coming!" Hope pointed out to the fast approaching weapon.

"Not so fast l'Cie" Rosch, the silver haired man, said as he took aim at the ship. He fired ten missiles at once and it sought after the ship it was locked on.

Sazh evaded the missiles as best as he could while fighting control of the ship at the same time. Gun fire was turned on them and the black ship was right on their tail. Jake looked at the strange flying machine and widened his eyes when he noticed familiar parts of its design.

"They used the Turbokat to make that thing!"

"They what?" Chance punched the inner wall of the ship in frustration of what PSICOM did to their jet. "Whoa! We're done for!" Another set of missiles were launched at them and made a direct hit. The huge ball of black smoke started to fall toward the ground but than suddenly the ship began to fly upward toward the sky.

"The hell kind of ship is this? Fighting on its own?" Sazh said as he let go of the controls. Their ship turned around and began to fire back bullets at the PSICOM created Turbokat.

"Clever, aren't you?" Rosch began to give chase after avoiding enemy fire. He fired all sorts of arsenal that was in his disposal and each one made a direct hit but the enemy was being protected by a force field.

"Can't we do something?" Hope asked panicking that they will be shot down any second.

"Got me! I give up!" Sazh said just waiting for it to end. The ship driving the l'Cie entered the barrier protection the city of Eden as the other ship chasing them crashed into said barrier.

"The Shield!" Rosch contorted his face when access to him wasn't given.

The l'Cie ship flew more smoothly in the Eden sky. Everyone looked back to see if they were being followed and nothing came into sight. Vanille turned around and warned Sazh of the approaching building in their way. It was too late to even avoid such a wide structure. Suddenly, their ship began to break down into small lights and them along with the ship before crashing and disappeared into thin air.

* * *

><p><strong>End of Disk Two. Disk Three will start as soon as possible. I hope you guys are enjoying this. Please Review or leave a comment.<strong>


	17. Sixteen: The Fifth Ark

**Lightning and the gang had just learned what their Focus meant and that one of them would become Ragnarok after defeating Dysley, who was really the Cocoon fal'Cie Bartandelous. Now I give you Chapter 16; enjoy.**

Chapter 16: Inside the Fifth Ark

Everyone walked out of the airship into some strange tunnels. The area reminded the toms of the underground subway terminals in their city only the ground didn't have rails to make anything run. They saw a strange vehicle but it seemed to be inoperable.

"Where are we?" Lightning asked as she took in their new location.

"Looks like a piece of Pusle." Vanille answered with a hint of confusion.

"Pulse? What, you mean like the Bodhum Vestige?" It was Sazh turn to ask. "Something like that, this close to Eden…"

"Yeah, well, what I don't understand is, after the Purge, and all that l'Cie paranoia…why keep a chunk of Pulse under the floorboards?" Fang was just as curious and also a bit furious.

"Is this what the Primarch wanted us to see?" Hope said adding to their list of unanswered questions.

"A place for l'Cie to accept their fate." Lightning said.

"Do you really think our Focus is what Dysley said it is?" Chance asked with slight fear. He noticed that Jake had lowered his ears and looked away from him.

"You mean, become Ragnarok." Vanille clarified.

"Destroy the fal'Cie Eden, and shatter Cocoon." Sazh said feeling rather gloomy. "That's what the vision is telling us, more or less. So, we're back to square one. Out of luck."

Vanille noticed that Snow had been quiet the whole time; just leaning against the wall and staring toward the ground. "Mr. Hero! Cocoon calling Snow!" Snow didn't respond and Vanille just slumped with a huff.

"It's almost like Dysley wants it to come true." Hope said.

"Seems that way." Sazh agreed. "He sure didn't mind explaining it. 'Here's your Focus on a silver platter.'"

"But," Vanille stepped forward, "that doesn't make sense. I don't get it. Why would a Cocoon fal'Cie want to destroy Cocoon?"

"Maybe it's a fal'Cie thing." Jake finally spoke. "You know what I mean? Some grand design we just don't understand."

"Hey, Snow! Nothing from you?" Fang asked seeing that the blond haired man was still in his own world. Snow just ignored her and kept looking the other way hoping that he would feel invisible to them.

"So, this way?" Sazh began to lead the way toward the tunnels. Jake stood there for a while as he watched his partner walk along side the others. It pained him to see that their fate was tied to this world along with the others. His mind was too wrapped up in the thought that maybe he was the monster that was supposed to defeat Orphan and bring catastrophe to Cocoon; killing innocent people in the process.

"Jake!" He looked up seeing Chance waving at him to come follow. A burning feeling came from his left shoulder but he ignored it as he ran toward the tabby. "You feeling alright?"

"I'm fine." Jake grunted when his shoulder started to flare up again. The small tom fell to his knees and held on to his shoulder as it felt it was about to rip off any second. Chance tried to help but a bright light green aura filled the air. Electricity started to flow from the symbols around Jake and just connected just above the small tom.

The tabby heard a hiss coming from the gathered energy as it turned into a green slim dragon pulsing with static. Jake fell forward with a thud and trying hard to breath for air. Chance pulled him out of the way as the dragon spread its wings and took direct focus on Jake.

"What is that…?" Jake said hoarsely. The dragon fired a pulse of plasma from its maw and closed his eyes shut. Nothing happened. He opened them to find Chance taking the hit with his arms shielding him.

"Get up Jake!"

"We need to get the-"

"No time for that!" Chance bit back at his partner. "This thing is after you and I'll make sure you don't fail!"

"What do you mean by that?" At that instant, Jake was hit with a dark aura and he felt his life slipping away. His vision was starting to look like it was fading as the darkness surrounded his peripherals.

"Jake, focus!" Lightning's voice came from behind as she ran toward them with her blade ready in her hands. "We won't let a comrade fall to the grasp of these eidolons!" Jake didn't know what she meant by that but he felt he had witnessed this before. Then he remembered Lightning in the same situation before back when they were running away from PSICOM.

Jake had his glovatrix ready and pointed at the dragon, hissing yet again at his resistance. "Take this!" The small tom focused his magical power to the tip of the missile as he fired with deadly accuracy. The explosion was bigger and enhanced with the fire element. Lighting dived in with four successful slashes before returning back, but the dragon had spun and hitting the pink haired women hard; lifting her off the ground but Lightning recovered before crashing on the solid floor.

Chance directed its attention by provoking it with some simple punches and kicks. The dragon didn't even seem to care and ignored the tabby's feeble effort. It hissed as it landed three Thundaras directly on Jake.

"Here!" Lightning switched to Medic and started to heal the small tom but Jake seemed he just wanted to give up.

"Just let me die! I can't deal with this much pressure!"

"No way buddy!" Chance struggled as he gave the dragon one good punch to the scale armored belly. "You're going to live and we'll finally find a way back home!"

"But I don't want to hurt innocent people… What if I become Ragnarok?"

"That's what's troubling you?" Lightning fended off a powerful slash from the dragon. "Jake, we're all afraid! Just like Snow! He was afraid that Serah was wrong about our Focus! But you know what, I doubted Serah but I moved forward wanting to believe it was true! It gave me faith!"

Jake snapped out of his worried state when he heard Chance yell in pain from the dragon's blast of plasma. Lightning went to heal the tabby but she was interrupted with a swing of the dragon's kick. Jake felt his life coming to an end as the darkness almost blocked his vision.

"No… I won't… I want to protect… I'm not giving up!" Jake lifted his glovatrix and fired every missile he had toward the dragon. When he ran out, he started to unleash a magical barrage toward the weary dragon. "I don't care anymore! I don't care about my Focus! I'll find a way to change it! Then we can kiss this world goodbye!" The small tom dropped his arms and a light twinkle fell upon the dragon and sharp icicle spires pierced through the dragon.

The darkness disappeared and Jake could see once again as Chance came to his side as he was about to fall back. A small aura formed in front of Jake and turned into a light green crystal.

"You had me scared Jake." Chance said as he helped his partner to stand.

"I was so worried about falling victim to this whole Ragnarok thing, that I forgot we were in this together. I put the entire guilt of killing innocent people on my shoulders and it almost killed you guys."

"Don't hold everything on your own." Lightning placed a hand on the tom's shoulder. "We're in this together and we'll make it."

* * *

><p>The three of them returned to the others with worried faces, wondering what had happened to make Jake so tired. Jake explained the best he could and when he told him the reason of his sudden sorrow, they all started to comfort him exactly how Chance and Light had. These people brought together, with no ties what so ever, had become close friends.<p>

"I can't believe we're still in Cocoon." Hope looked around the now more widen area that resembled more like a factory. Pillars had gate like doors with a peering hole in front but nothing could be seen what it contained.

"It's kind of creepy." Sazh said.

"Hey Vanille," the tabby called for her and smiled warmheartedly, "do you know the name of a green dragon?"

"A green dragon?" Vanille cocked her head a bit, placed her hands behind her back and roamed a bit around the question.

"You don't mean Adrammelech?" Fang answered as she looked at the small tom. The look she gave him wasn't one of respect or impressed; more like she despised the thought that Jake can control the eidolon.

"Adrammelech, the wroth…" Vanille went into a pensive state yet again. "It looks like Light isn't the only one with extra thunder power now." She chuckled softly and started to head up the flight of stairs. Fang followed feeling rather bothered.

"Hey Chance," Jake stopped his partner before taking a step.

"What is it?"

"Fang," the small tom looked at her and their eyes met for one second when she turned around, "I think… She seems bothered by the fact I can command an eidolon."

"Don't let her get to you. Hope can't either and you don't see him getting jealous." Chance patted his pal on the shoulder with a smile and followed everyone. Jake joined him and once on top, he really felt scared of the place they were taken by the Dysley.

"This place—it must be and Ark." Vanille inquired with a hand on her chin.

"An Ark?" Lightning asked.

"That's what they called 'em." Fang backed up her friend and partner.

"Long ago, the fal'Cie who made their home on Gran Pulse were afraid of invasion from the outside." Vanille began to explain. "As part of their battle preparations, they created an army of living weapons. And they stored those weapons in Arks, and they hid the Arks all over the world."

"Everyone on Gran Pulse knew the legend." Fang said.

"So, this is basically and Pulse armory." Lightning said to better understand what they were told.

"Most of us never believed in 'em." Fang continued. "A few people tried searching, but they never found a thing. Who'd have thought to look on Cocoon?"

"Right under our noses. That's some secret they kept." Sazh said gruffly. "Those Sanctum guys, what are they up to?"

"The story's not done." Vanille interrupted. "There's more."

"They used to say the Arks had a more practical purpose." Fang said.

"Huh, really?" Jake questioned.

"Yeah, to force l'Cie to master their shiny new powers."

The others were surprised by what these structures were built for. Jake thought that if the Enforcers had training grounds like that, would they even become SWAT Kats in the first place. "Okay, so, I get it. Dysley's goal is to forge us into stronger weapons. Right."

"Not Cie'th, but monsters all the same." Chance huffed.

"Think of it as training for the fight ahead." Hope chimed in.

"Hope's right!" Vanille agreed. Then suddenly, a pillar beside them started to make noises. When the latches opened, smoke and an old style automaton started to march its way toward them.

"Aw, these guys again." Sazh complained while taking out his guns.

"Fun times." Lightning said sarcastically.

"Over there! We have to keep moving!" Hope pointed to a clear section of the field and the led the l'Cie away from the attacking robots. Lucky for them the enemies were slow and stopped the chase to return to guard the area around the pillar.

"We can't just stand here." Snow said as he scouted the rest of the path. "Great… More of those Pulse weapons Fang mentioned." Bomb type machines and walking Pulsework Knights roamed and blocked their only way forward.

"Seems like the best thing now is to fight." Jake said while adjusting his glovatrix.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Chance took the lead this time and was automatically followed by Lightning. Everyone stood close and planned their actions before running into battle. Jake, Hope, Vanille, Sazh, and Lightning used their magical powers to stagger the Pulsework Knights while Fang, Snow, and Chance defended and provoked the automaton's attention toward them. After rendering the knights successfully, it was an all out attack with all bombarding or physically attacking the enemy.

* * *

><p>The group decided to take a break from their travel through the ark. The enemies had were starting to get a little out of hand for them as the new flan monsters merged together to create a much larger target. Its wild swings took a heavy toll on them and Hope was hurt the most out of their fight.<p>

"How ya holding up, kiddo?" Chance asked the young boy. Hope smiled at him for being such a softy for someone so big.

"Do you always have to ask when I get hurt?"

"I'm just looking out for ya. You don't have to try so hard."

"I guess… Lightning would hurt you for trying to tell me otherwise." The boy chuckled when he saw her from the corner of his eyes. When he turned back to Chance, he saw him looking at her too.

"I wouldn't mind… She worked hard to turn you into a little soldier. Lightning… She's changed. The last time I saw her, she would kill anyone who opposed her decision. And now… Her attitude is graceful."

"Graceful? Chance, you're not…falling for her, are you?" The question made the tabby blush and stand up uncomfortably.

"Just…uh…rest up."

* * *

><p>"These things…are alive." Sazh said as they entered a large room with huge red armored weapons that stood on four legs. Chance didn't like the machines one bit and it gave him flashbacks of when the Metalikats took over two of Pumadynes destructive robots.<p>

"What's the Sanctum up to? Are they planning to start a war? Lightning questioned with nobody to answer. She turned to face the group and saw that they were worried at the possibility that it just could be.

"We have to keep moving." Lightning led on but the party stopped when one of those machines began to move and charged its way toward the female l'Cie. She quickly pulled out her gunblade but, to her surprise, saw Chance immediately act to defend.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," Lightning took her stance as the giant red weapon leapt back and started to glow a bit. The crimson light flowed to the area beside the weapon and created a sword floating around and as long as it was tall.

"What do we do now?" Hope asked as backing up from the weapon as it got closer.

"It's too strong for us to handle." Vanille said with concern lacing her voice. Though she stood ready to fight, her legs trembled with slight fear.

"I don't know about you guys but I want to live. Let's fight and run our way across." Sazh suggested with a twirl of his pistols.

"Not a bad idea." Snow added.

"Whatever we choose, we will end up fighting this thing for sure." Chance growled a bit irritated.

"We've been through a lot to have this thing slow us down!" Jake stuck out his paw as electricity formed around it. His brand glowed, the crystal finally appeared for him to reach, and tossed the catalyst in the air before releasing his blast of thunder. A bright flash blinded them and the enemy. A strong gust of wind was felt through the party and Adrammelech floated beside the small tom with a successful smirk.

"It's high time I gave him a try!" Jake ran forward and casted Thunders on the war-mech as Adrammelech blasted fired a blast of electric plasma from its maw. Lightning joined in with her summon, Odin, and both casted their own spells of Thunder. The war-mech was not backing down and used its sword to drive slashes to the four attacking and successfully staggering their attacks.

"Hang on!" Vanille went to cure the group with Hope assisting her. Chance and Snow went to the front to defend while Fang attacked up close to back off the war-mech's sword along with Sazh.

"Let's just focus on the Berserker!" Jake commanded as he went back to target the war-mech. Lightning didn't hesitate to go all out along with Odin's blades. She leapt in the air, Odin's blades floated around her as thunder fell constantly upon the Berserker. Jake kept issuing commands to his summon and finally joined together to fire a powerful pulsing sphere of electricity. When the sphere crashed down, the war-mech disintegrated to mere scrap metal and melted gadgets.

"That was one scary finish." Sazh said as he came up to the small tom. Jake only smiled sheepishly at the comment but they did manage to get rid of their problem.

They decided to walk until they gathered their energy to start jogging onward. Chance was boasting on how great Jake had gotten control of his eidolon so quickly while he still had to practice commanding his. Lightning said it wasn't much of an issue for her since she was a born leader. Snow's comment to that only gave him a glare from the quick-tempered female and was warned to shut up or else. Everyone chuckled at Snow's defensive state; including Lightning herself. That short smile and laugh made Chance think that she had changed; a lot.

"Raines?" Snow said as he saw the black haired man walk up to them.

"What?" Fang was confused to how Raines had gotten here.

"Easy guys, it's all right." Snow said to try to keep Sazh, Vanille, and Chance calm since they had never met Raines. "Raines is a Sanctum officer. He's been helping us out—" Fang placed an arm in the way of Snow to stop him from explaining any further.

"Why are you here?" Fang asked. The man still kept walking toward them without saying a thing.

"Raines!" Lightning dashed forward, pulled out her blade, "You traitor!" She swung her blade but Raines dodged with ease from the female swordsman's attack. Lightning quickly spun to attack again but each hit was blocked by Raine's own hand. She gasped when the man grabbed hold of her blade and tossed her toward the group. Raines now held the weapon that was used to attack him.

"I put you on the path. That was my Focus." Raines said.

"You're a l'Cie?" Fang said irritated by the truth while everyone else couldn't believe what they just heard.

"Since long before we met." Raines eased the weapon in hand to his side to show the other l'Cie he wasn't going to fight them. "I did my best to assist you, as bid by the Sanctum fal'Cie. Now do you understand? The fal'Cie have watched over you, guiding your every step. The 'luck' that saved you time and again was a deliberate machination. Why you may ask? The Primarch—or should I say, Barthandelous—is crafting you into the instruments of Cocoon's demise."

"We've been played for fools." Fang said disgusted by the turn about.

"A Cocoon fal'Cie? Why?" Sazh asked.

"Why? To restore the Maker."

"The Maker?" Jake asked with a confused look on his face along with everyone else.

"The entity responsible for creating both humans and fal'Cie."

**Long ago, the Maker departed this word. Leaving the two races behind.**

**In a sense, humans and fal'Cie are brothers. Orphaned by the same parent.**

**As for the humans, they forgot the order imposed by the Maker.**

**They began to war amongst themselves for the first time in history.**

**The fal'Cie focused on recalling their lost deity and returning the world to its former glory.**

"This purpose lies at the heart of all their actions. Calling back the Maker requires fitting sacrifice."

"Yeah," Lightning stood up glaring at Raines, "we've heard. The destruction of Cocoon."

"The lives of this world's entire populous in bloody tribute." Raines tossed the blade back at Lightning and she catches it expertly in her hands.

"No… That's crazy talk." Sazh said.

"I don't get it. Why do they need us?" Hope asked. "Couldn't the fal'Cie end Cocoon with just a thought?"

"Their existence is bound to the creation and maintenance of this floating shell. It is their very nature that holds them in check." Raines answered truthfully.

"You mean," Chance began, "Cocoon fal'Cie can't destroy Cocoon. They needed tools."

"If we can stop this by doing nothing…" Vanille hesitated for a moment for having to come this far. "We'll do nothing."

"Noble; I expected as much."

"You lied to us." Snow growled. "What happened to your dream of rebuilding Cocoon for the people? Was it all a lie?"

"A shadow of a dream from when I was human. It was change I craved and once I built the influence to make things happen, there was change. I gained all the power I could hope for. But was a puppet with no will to wield it. It wasn't the fal'Cie who changed." Raines' brand began to glow brighter around the back of his hand and then dissipated. "It was me."

"You… You were made a l'Cie?" Vanille asked.

"A l'Cie tied to an inescapable Focus. A slave of destiny. I had lost hope. I had given up on all dreams of freedom."

"What are you saying?" Sazh stepped forward with full concern.

"I'm here of my own accord; not by fal'Cie order." Raines said. "See you fight brought it all back. Brought back that future I once strove for. I too will challenge my fate." The brand once again glowed without rest. The man raised his hand in the air and a pulse of light surrounded him. With a snap of his fingers, he had trapped the other l'Cie along with him. "If I can defeat you here, the fal'Cie plan will fail."

"Raines!" Fang yelled hoping to reach the man to sanity.

"I will use all my remaining power." The flowing light around him turned Raines into half man and half crystalstysis. "I will set you free!"


	18. Seventeen: A Gate to Hell

Chapter 17: A Gate to Hell

Raines unleashed a relentless assault toward his target. Lightning wasn't fast enough to avoid yet another of the mix crystal human being as she was launched into the air with a powerful somersault. Everyone, barely on the verge of breaking a sweat, tried to render Raines weak and slow him down. He was fast on his feet. Backing away and swerving every spell trying to land its mark. It was a difficult battle and Raines was really determined to end the fal'Cie's plan.

Snow and Chance covered Lightning from the chains of clear spheres the emanated from Raines' crystal arm. Fang lunged forward with her spear and expected Raines to dodge but her weapon was firmly grasped. Jake came from behind; landing a good hard kick pushing Raines forward and knocking him to his knees.

"He's down! Move in!" Hope said as he lowered his boomerang a bit. Snow, Chance, Lightning, and Fang took the initiative to get the jump on Raines. The second they were about to land a hit, a bright light flashed; burning them from its radiance. Raines had recovered his stance but was floating in air as six thin crystal wings grew from his back.

"You l'Cie have no hold!" Raines fired a barrage of spells that weakened the party of l'Cie. Jake fell to a knee when he couldn't see straight and the area was quickly spinning. He felt he was in some sort of daze. Another feeling made its way into his body as he felt sick. Something was making him nauseous and weaker by the second.

Chance ran toward his partner trying to support him but Raines got the small tom first. Jake was knocked out of his daze and was suddenly flopped on his back from a large pulsing explosion. The tabby growled and lunged on Raines but his effort was quickly taken for worse. Raines had retaliated by using his wings as blades, knocked Chance back out cold.

"Chance," Lightning called out. She glared at Raines as she quickly began to cast her chain of spells. Hope and Vanille joined her and seemed they finally have Cocoon l'Cie cornered. The constant barrage of magic was too much for Raines to handle in the air was knocked down again.

Snow and Fang didn't wait for orders and both launched Raines in the air with combo fist and spear hit. As Raines drew closer to the tip of his flight, Sazh fired his bullets from his pistols. There he was; open and everyone knew who had to finish him off. Jake was already aiming and fired a missile from his glovatrix creating a huge explosion on contact; sending the Cocoon l'Cie down to the ground.

"Chance," Lightning didn't wait any second and was by the tabby's side. She knelt down and was able to hear a weak slow breathing. "He's okay…" Jake relaxed a bit to hear her confirm that.

Raines grunted as he stood up from his hard crash. He staggered forward and back as he tried to gain balance. He fell to his knees and hands trying to catch his breath. The others waited and protected both Lightning and Chance in case they have to go another round.

"Raines…" Lightning sighed and put her gunblade back in its case.

"Ironic, isn't it? The only thing I wanted was a moment of triumph. How it ends isn't important. Just do what you know is right. Trust yourselves."

A soft glow surrounded Raines before his whole body was engulfed in light. The others were blinded by the sudden flash but it wasn't like the flash before. This one was soothing and somewhat eerie. When the light subsided, Raines entire body was transformed into a crystal reaching out towards them with a face asking for forgiveness.

"What? Did he complete his Focus?" Sazh asked looking rather confused.

"I don't think so," Snow said, "all Raines did was try to save Cocoon in his own way." And something occurred to him. "His own way!" Snow quickly ran passed the others and headed off on their path.

"Hey!"

"Where are you—"

"Snow!"

Everyone watched the blond man walk off trying to find out what had gotten to him. A faint light glowed behind them and everyone watched as Raines' crystal disappeared into nothing in a column of light.

* * *

><p>Jake and Sazh both helped carry Chance's unconscious body along the path way. Soon they ended up at a large gate which Snow proceeded to open. The large round door opened as a gear as it spun revealing a bit of light and fresh air. The group partially cheers in relief but when they finally walk out into the space, they ran out of road.<p>

"Looks like it's a dead end." Hope said looking around and seeing nothing but trashed buildings and what seemed to be murky water. Sazh walks forward after they set Chance down.

"How about down there?"

"If the stories are right, it's a maze." Vanille said.

"This place is a boot camp for l'Cie. All kinds of challenges from Grand Pulse are waiting." Fang added.

"Challenges huh?" Jake sounded a bit irritated. "To get us all ready to wipe out Cocoon?"

"We can wait here if turning Cie'th sounds better?"

The group looked around for a while and it really seemed like there is nowhere to go.

"I have enough of this! Where's the way out!?" Sazh yelled.

"Way out? Who said there was one?" Snow chimed in. "Bring it on. My mind is made up. Maybe I will end up a Cie'th. But until that happens, I'm going to make Serah proud," Snow held up the crystal tear he received from Serah, "I couldn't bring myself to admit that this tear meant good-bye. And that's why I kept searching for her. But I didn't need to. Serah was here the whole time. Right here, watching over me. Now I get it. What this tear's been telling me is not to let our Focus win. It's not the fal'Cie we should listen to. It's Serah and Raines. Do you know why? Because our Focus doesn't matter! What matters to me is that we protect Cocoon, whatever it takes!"

"Same here," Vanille agreed, "I'll help you do it." Snow extended him hand with Serah's crystal tear held firmly in his grip. Vanille placed her hand on it and made her promise.

"All right. I'm in." Hope did the same. Sazh and Jake agreed from the distance with a smile and so did Lightning. The yellow tiny chocobo also landed on their pack promise cheering and chirpy with glee.

"I mean come on. When the chocobo agrees, you know you're in the right path."

"You can count me out." Fang said walking away from the group. Everyone was surprised by her decision. "If you all want to go it on your own…then so will I." Fang pulled out her spear on her friends and took her stance. "Let Cocoon get what's coming. They hate us for being l'Cie. What's it to me if they die? Better that than watch a friend go Cie'th! If you don't have the nerve for it, I'll do it on myself. Go on alone, get stronger, and smash Cocoon out of the sky!"

"Fang?" Vanille stepped forward and stopped when the spear was pointed right on her. Fang faltered and fell to her knees. She seemed to be exhausted and tired. Her breathe was quickly wanting for air.

"You turn Cie'th, and there's no coming back! I'm not…" She held on to her shoulder which started to light up where her l'Cie brand used to be, "…letting it end that way!" She screamed in pain and a bright violet light surrounded her. The sky darkened and swirled over her as the same symbol on the ground around Fang appeared in the sky.

A fast flying creature broke through the symbol and flew right passed the l'Cie. Everyone tried to keep their eye on it but it was moving too fast. Then it finally rose right out from the depths where it dove and hovered just above them.

"What's he doing here?" Fang asked a bit in shock. Everyone quickly surround her to add more to the surprise. "Come to take pity on me? Come to take care of a broken l'Cie?" Fang continues to ask the flying dark dragon deity before her.

"That thing is here to help us?" Jake asked.

"Yeah 'help'. That's what Eidolons do, they help us. Eidolons are our salvation. If we can't decide what to do next, they come to put us out of our misery!"

"Wait, so you haven't made up your mind yet!"

Snow and Lightning covered Fang as the Eidolon fired a sphere of blue flames within its claws. The effort to deflect the move caused both to stagger but stood their ground.

"Why are you protecting me? What are you doing?"

"Protecting one of our own. We can do without their brand of mercy." Lightning pointed her gunblade toward the Eidolon. "And we don't need a fal'Cie's orders, either. I'm fighting this Focus to the end. We all are. So please…" Lightning extended her hand toward Fang, "fight with us."

Fang contemplated as she stared at Light's hand. She smirked and took it and stood up with Vanille's help from behind. She spun her spear over her head and prepared to fight the Eidolon that emerged from within herself.

"Ready when you are!"

Jake stood beside his unconscious partner to protect him from the Eidolon. Just like him, Fang was hit with the same dark power that slowly drained her of life. She didn't seem phased by the curse and still kept up her tempo and battle spirit. Lightning and Vanille held their best together with Fang as they worked together.

The small tom couldn't believe how close Fang put herself against the Eidolon. She was dangerous—daring even. There were some moments where he wanted to jump in and take a hit for Fang but something inside him made him stay his ground. Was it respect? No, he thought to himself.

"She's doing a lot better than we did with our Eidolons."

"Fang is really scary when she's serious."

"Don't worry Hope. Just don't get on her bad side." Snow teased with a slap on his back. Hope staggered forward and half glared at the blond haired man.

There was a yell from Fang as she jumped into the air and dove with a devastating piercing blow. The Eidolon hit the ground hard with Fang just atop it. The big dark and purple weapon disappeared into an aura and formed a crystal just before her.

"Out of all he Eidolons, mine was Bahamut."

"Look," Vanille pointed at the direction the Eidolon once hovered, "a new path." Everyone saw the new road as it lit up making a winding direction down. "Maybe that thing did save us."

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to call it a sign of me being right?" Snow chuckled but everyone just stood silent. "No… Okay. Listen. Keep our eyes on the goal and we'll figure something out!" Everyone shrugged at the idea but they agreed to it.

Snow picked up Chance with his ease and Lightning sort of sighed in annoyance. Vanille thought it was the cutest thing ever that Chance was just sleeping his exhaustion away. Jake had to agree that they were tired but it doesn't give his partner the excuse to milk such a condition. Chance has been hit a lot harder and could still get up and somehow Lightning figured that out by his build.

"Hey! Look at that!" Vanille points to something at the distance again but her tone was more excited than before. She started running toward it and Sazh was a little confused that it was there.

"An airship?"

"And it's from Gran Pulse!"

The closer everyone got to the ship, the bigger it got. Jake was awed by the size of it. Their jet would fit perfectly in the compartment that was used to house other smaller airships that it showed.

"I guess it was one of this Ark's weapons or something."

"That's a gate to Gran Pulse!" Fang said as she looked further beyond than the ship.

Somehow everyone was feeling uneasy. There was their exit out of the Ark and it led to the only place Cocoon called hell. Jake didn't want to go but curiosity was getting the best of him. He wanted to see Gran Pulse with his own eyes.

"So, what, that's our exit? Pulse, or bust?" Sazh said covering his eyes from the bright light coming from outside.

"Could be one of Dysley's traps." Lightning said.

"Well that's not good. You think it might take us to Eden?" Jake asked. Sazh grunted in disapproval and walked on past the small tom.

"I'm doing the flying. No more of these ships taking charge of our travel plans stuff. The only place this thing is taking us is where these boys tell it to." Sazh lifted his arms and gave them thumbs up. If Chance was still awake, they would be arguing about who flies.

"_Ha_! Really? _That_ is a Gran Pulse ship." Fang retorted.

"Really," Sazh said a bit cocky, "Leave it to me." Sazh hit his chest but a bit too hard that he started having a coughing fit. Everyone chuckled nervously as Sazh told them he was okay.

"Either way, we're on borrowed time. Might as well go." Snow said. He patted Sazh's back to help him but couldn't hold back a bit. "We get lucky, maybe we'll even turn up some way to get rid of these goofy tattoos."

"But there's no way to do that." Vanille looked toward the ground with a sad filled expression. Fang rubbed the back of her head and smiled at her longtime friend.

"You never know. Maybe we just didn't think to look for one."

"If nothing else, we know Cocoon is safe for the time being. I'd say it's worth going to take a look." Hope said.

"Maybe. But what about your dad?" Jake asked feeling worried about the young boy.

"I made him a promise. I promised him to keep going, and do what I had to. He said only I would know what that was. The world's full of lies. There's no way of knowing what's right. All we can do is believe in ourselves. It's easy to sit back and let people trick you. Like how the Sanctum had us all thinking that a l'Cie was some sort of monster. I'm done with their lies. Fal'Cie, this whole Focus thing. From here on out I use my eyes. Think. And Act."

The group listened in to Hope and agreed with every word that came from the young boy.

"I might not make all the right choices. But as long as I'm the one who decided what to do, there's nothing to regret."

"All right. Let's do it! I'm with you, bad choices and all!" Sazh said.

"Of course I'm not sure how it's gonna turn out. Pulse is hell, you know."

"Oh is it now?" Fang waltzed her way in front of Hope with her hands on her hips. She had a big smile on her face to give the young boy a sense that she was joking. "How many times have you been there?"

"None," Hope chuckled, "but I want to go, and see what it's like for myself."

"Okay, so, everybody in?" Snow asked to ensure that everyone was on board. Everyone nodded their heads and agreed to going.

"Off to hell we go." Lightning said sarcastically and just as curious.

Everyone made their way to the airship; sharing their feelings while Snow went to pick up Chance. The tabby stirred awake from being touched and groaned. Snow acknowledged him by saying "good morning sleeping beauty" which earned Snow a big shove. Chance was a bit confused and wondered what happened but was told that he would be told along the way.

With everyone now onboard the airship, Sazh piloted it with some trouble but was glad that the controls were similar to those of a Cocoon ship. He flew the Pulse airship through the gate and suddenly the ship was flying slightly faster than usual. Sazh fought for control and managed to not go astray as the end quickly approached. The small specks of light soon consumed the l'Cie and were blinded for a mere second.

Sazh slowed down the airship as he was sure that they had exit the gate and entered the skies again. The fading blue sky greeted them as the sun shined golden as it set.

"You did it!" Vanille happily smiled. Sazh cheered as well and continued to fly the ship.

Suddenly a large monster flies right beside them and almost hit them. Hope staggered in fear from its size.

"Playful little critter, isn't he?" Fang said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, play with someone else." Lightning scoffed from already being in a big situation.

"Happens all the time." Vanille giggled.

"He thinks we're lunch."

"Yeah," Chance groaned, "like a sea-food buffet."

"Sea food sounds good." Fang continued her jokes.

"Guys! Here it comes!" Hope yelled as the monster rammed the top of the airship right off. Vanille and Hope were caught in the powerful force of the hit and were sent falling down to the ground.

"Fang! Get 'em!"

"I'm on it!" Fang immediately acted on Snow's command and was followed by Lightning.

Chance quickly went to Sazh's side to help with the steering weal but felt strange that there was no yoke to control the ship. Jake held on to one of the broken pieces of metal and watched both females fall down. There was a gunshot but then Bahamut flew right passed them and toward Fang.

"They're okay!" Jake said as he watched them catch Hope and Vanille. His body was jerked and lost hold of his grip but Snow managed to save him before falling off too.

"The ship's losing altitude!" Chance yelled.

"Jump!" Lightning called out. Snow and Jake didn't hesitate as the ship went for a nose dive straight down. Sazh had some help from Chance as both of them barely made it on in time. Fang flew her Eidolon over the landscape as forest and strange rock formations. There was a canyon, almost unknown of its depths, and the earth was rocky with patches of grass.

Jake and Chance were both awed to see that such a wilderness existed in this world. They say what seemed to be wolf like creatures running in packs toward some destination and a group of giant turtle-like monolith slowly making their way to a water source.

"Home, sweet, home. Welcome to Gran Pulse." Fang said as she flew, looking for a safe place to land.

* * *

><p><strong>Been a long time since I updated this or any of my stories. Next chapter to this is coming sooner than you think.<strong>


	19. Eighteen: New Hope

Chapter 18: New Hope

A world wild and fragile, vibrant and untamed, Gran Pulse. It's a place ruled by the brutal struggle to for survival, and the callous and uncaring whim of the fal'Cie.

There is no such thing as mercy. Only a neverending string of trials that weed out the weak and leave only the strong.

Raines knew the truth. The purpose lying at the heart of all the fal'Cie's actions. 'Recalling their lost deity and returning the world to its former glory.'

People were never anything more than sacrifices. And Cocoon's destruction? It's just a way to wake a sleeping god. But would bringing the Maker back really lead to their salvation?

The Maker created fal'Cie and they, in their desperation to be reunited with the Maker, created l'Cie. And l'Cie? What will they end up creating?

"Just a few more." Hope looked up at a palm tree with remaining coconuts. Jake and the little yellow bird organized the pile as Hope gave a good tackle to the tree. But Hope's reactions were a little stifled when the coconut fell faster than usual, causing him to fumble the big seed in his hands and trip. Jake chuckled a bit as Hope slowly joined along.

Thier future looked bleak, but as long as they could keep their spirits up, they'd find a way to change their fate-somehow.

* * *

><p>Vanille slowly stirred awake from her nap. She felt a bit rested but tired after yesterday's search for any humans or clues to their brand.<p>

"You were having a dream." Fang said. Vanille nodded weakly.

"A pretty strange dream."

The heavy sounds of steps and grass crushing got both the female's attention. The others had returned with tired looks and fatigue being sated for finally having to return. "You're back!" Vanille smiled.

"Hey, guys! Have any luck?" Fang asked. Though it seemed pretty pointless with the expressions she just saw.

"No sign of anyone else." Chance sat down heavily with a relieved sigh. His feet were killing him after a long morning exploring the Yassaf Massive.

"But we did find plenty of bloodthirsty wildlife and crumbling ruins." Lightning said sarcastically.

The canyon, Yassaf Massive, was barely walkable and a wrong step could send you falling down who knows how far. But if their carelessness didn't get to them, the monsters would have. Natural Pulse monsters roamed and hid themselves well with the environment. Some resembled a simple rose bush but it was actually a Vespid monster ready to poison and kill with its long stinger or tail.

The Pulse monsters weren't the only danger they found. They figured people did once live here but when, they didn't know. Cieth were found in an abandoned city about an hours trek away. They sight disturbed them but it was best that they didn't mention what they saw to the others just yet.

"Well guys, we've run out of places to search around here." Snow looked around and noticed that two were missing. "Where's Hope and Jake?"

"They're off with the chocobo getting supplies." Fang said as the little bird flew around them chirping frantically. It made its way to Sazh still full of energy.

"You all by yourself?" The chocobo then started to jump around, causing smiles and chuckles from the happy little bird. It landed on Vanille's hand and then she had a bad feeling.

"His brand!"

Everyone gasped. The little bird's bouncing and chirping were finally realized for what it really meant.

"We've got to find him!"

* * *

><p>Jake scanned his surrounding for anymore monsters. Hope was knocked unconscious by a sneaking Flan monster and the tom barely won with his life. He panted heavily. Jake had sent the chocobo hoping that it would get to the others on time since they were pretty far off from base camp. It wasn't helping with his vision slowly fading away and consciousness slipping into darkness.<p>

"Hope!" Jake heard Snow calling out. Knowing that the others are near, the tom eased up and let himself pass out.

* * *

><p>Hours had passed and night came sooner than expected. Everyone huddled around the campfire in silence. It was painful for them to sit around like this because each second was wasted and their brands get closer to becoming completed.<p>

"So this is how it ends?" Snow yelled out.

"Just wait," Sazh said, "Now how long has it been since we left Cocoon? Hm? Not a single soul for miles around. Not a single clue about this whole l'Cie mess! What I'm saying is, we did well just getting this far."

Snow tired to argue against Sazh's point but couldn't come up with anything on the spot.

"But," Vanille chimed in, "we could go a little further."

"Meaning?"

"There's still one place."

"Vanille!" Fang looked at the young girl with serious eyes, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"You know, if we don't find anything this time, we won't get a second chance." Lightning said.

"Come on Light," Chance sighed, "don't you think we already know that?"

"Oerba," Hope said waking up, "the place it all began."

"Hope!" Jake was relieved to see the boy awake and okay. Ever since he had woken up from his rest, he had not left Hope's side. He was worried about Hope and the pained look throughout his rest made him feel worse. He couldn't protect Hope when he was supposed to. But now that Hope is okay, he could stop worrying and apologize.

"The place where the Pulse fal'Cie lay dreaming. Vanille and Fang's home. Just maybe...it's be the place where we find the answers we're looking for."

"Yeah, right," Fang scoffed, "if we can get there."

"Go ahead without me." Hope sadly said while sitting up.

"We can't just leave you!" Vanille protested.

"I'll be fine. You've all taught me so much-showed me how to fight." Hope tried to keep a smile. He staggered getting up and fell into Snow's arms.

"What did I tell you? Leave the fighting to me."

"I'm scared."

"We understand." Lightning said reassuringly, "You're not gonna go through this ordeal alone, you know."

"That's what scares me. I don't… I don't want to see you get hurt because of me." Hope said looking at Jake from the corner of his eyes. "It would be better for everyone if I stayed behind!"

Hope's brand shined brightly and began to grunt in pain. His body felt on fire. Quick and painful. A burst of light shot into the sky and out came a heavy armored golem clad in gold. Steam shot from the small turrets on its shoulders and glared down directly on Hope.

"Mention ordeals and look what comes along!" Fang yelled out taking out her spear.

"This isn't an ordeal. This is a gift!" Lighting came to Hope's side. "This the kind of power you've got inside. And it's telling you not to give up. Trust me."

Hope felt a hand on his shoulder. Jake stepped forward with is glove ready for fire.

"It's here to show you the way! Show you that you've got what it takes to get back on your feet and do this!" Jake said.

"You mean, that came from me?"

Hope looked at the giant weapon in front of him. Testful determination beamed down on him.  
>The boy's brand glowed true and pure. Almost warm and welcoming. Hope was ready. He stepped forward into the front lines with his boomerang in hand.<p>

"Ready?" Lightning, Fang, and Jake stood beside the boy weapons ready.

The same darkness that the three had gone through hit Hope. He already felt exhausted but hadn't slowed down. He was willing to prove that he can overcome even his most inner power.

Fang had taken to the defensive approach. Protecting Hope from the golem's powerful punches was really draining her of her endurance. A quick heal and both Fang and Hope went for the offensive.

But the golem stood tall and unmoved. It's armor protected the golden weapon too well. Not only that, its power was staggering. Hope had to think fast if he was going to make it out alive with everyone.

"Jake, Fang! Slow it down and break its defenses!"

Jake and Fang shined in a dull grey light and began to cripple the weapon. Fang cast several Slows but noticed it was ineffective. Jake's armor weakening spell also proved to be useless since the weapon still had stamina to burn. But the weapon attacked both Jake and Fang with a power blasting punch. Both struggled to get up and were badly injured.

Lighting tried to heal her fallen comrades but was immediately interrupted with the exact same punching blast.

The darkness that slowly drained Hope of his life was putting a bit toll on him. He knew it was over. The least he could was to recover his friends before dying. Very weakly, Hope healed his friends. He fell to his hands and knees. Hope was scared to die but he knew his only friends would be safe.

But the darkness binding him the boy subsided. The golden golem eased its arms and stood proudly watching over Hope. As the golem disappeared, a bright yellow crystal landed in front of Hope.

The weapon had accepted Hope. Through Hope's selfless actions, he was able to control his inner power. Now he knows what Jake went through to protect him. Not because he could because he had power. But because Jake was his friend. A friend he wanted to protect with his life.

"That's one beast you tamed, I'll tell you that." Jake said.

"Yeah," Hope agreed sheepishly, "I always thought the Eidolons appeared to set us free through death. But now...I think they're here to snap us out of our slumps."

"Oh. Like the one you were just in?" Jake smiled jokingly.

Everyone gathered around to see if Hope was alright. Hope saw that everyone cared for him. They all asked him questions and it was getting on his nerves but it wasn't the bad kind. Hope had never felt more at home than he had since his mom died.

"I'll ask for help next time around."

Suddenly Vanille embraced Hope, "I told you. On Gran Pulse, we're all family. You can moan all you like, you're stuck with us."

Hope looked around at everyone nodding with a smile.

"You're never alone in hell." Sazh joked.

"Listen, funnyman," Fang glared at Sazh, "don't call this place hell, alright?" Sazh backed away agreeing to what seemed to be a silent threat.

"So, we're all decided then?" Lightning asked. Nobody objected or said otherwise. Everyone was ready to go onward.

Maybe nothing would change. And maybe they'd hit a dead end. But, they were at least going to see where the road would take them.

The search for a home buried in the past. And the faintest glimmer of hope. Their final journey had just begun.

* * *

><p><strong>Time to get this one underway and finished. Just a few more chapters to go.<strong>


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